Psychology in World of Warcraft - Improve your Play

[Berlinia]

Hello ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to make a short post about a phenomenon that is common in popular psychology and is applicable to WoW as a whole and the way you play/perceive your class. That phenomenon is that us, humans, give loss far more value than gain. Example can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBX-KulgJ1o" target="_blank on which people where offered to flip a coin betting 10 dollars if they lose and winning 50 dollars if they win. Even then, many people declined the offer, even when statistically the odds where in their favour. They remained foot on their front, even when offered to repeat the bet 20 consecutive times. So now a question, how does this affect your gameplay?

On a recent thread someone asked if it was worth to cast Arcane Missiles at 2 stacks of AM and 2 Arcane Charges, in order to ensure that if the third AB cast procced AM and due to reaction times you were to cast a 4th AB, and that AB procced missiles again, that you would not lose procs. The guy involved was so concerned NOT to lose a potential AM proc, that we was willing to play sub-optimaly just in order to ensure that in one specific situation he doesn't lose potential dps. Because yes, in the situation he sketched, by doing what my guide for arcane recommended, he would lose dps. However he fails to see that ON AVERAGE this situation wouldn't arise. Thus if he played as recommended, he might lose dps in certain situations, but on average across all his pulls he would gain dps.

This fear of loss also applies to gearing. People have a Frost Item with Crit, Multistrike AND a socket on it. God item right? Well for it's tier, it's excellent. But then assume another item drops, on a higher diffuclty. A 30 itemlevel higher item with Crit/Versatility. That same player will fail to see that int gained by that item is far more important in what he perceives his best stat. Not to say that Multistrike isn't our best stat, but it is not worth sacrificing 30 ilevels of intellect. So when gearing keep in mind, that you might lose a great stat, but still you will gain dps at the end of the ride.

I think what the conclusion of this short post is, don't overvalue loss and always remain rational. Everyone understands that a BiS stat item with a socket is very appealing to have, but at some point even our Siege of Oggrimar 588 gear got replaced by some shitty green quest reward. So for you out there who are reading this: Always research, always be rational and always do what more often than not gives you the best outcome. There might be exceptions, but ignore those because you want to be consistent. Not to shine when wrong playstyle gets benefited by RNG.

Berlinia

[TLTeo]

Cool post

I'm not sure the situation with the item levels has to do with that phenomenon though. I think it's because up until wrath, you could just say that someone's stat weights were something like spellpower>hit>haste>crit or whatever, and all those appeared as a useful stat, written in green on the item's stats. Nowadays does what spellpower used to do, but in a much more "behind the scenes" way if you will, so people don't notice as easily just how important it is.

[Berlinia]

And they hear Multistrike is amazing so they place an irregular amount of value on Multistrike as a stat (or be it their main stat)

[zhengma]

Upon reading the post, I began a retrospect:

1. Gearing. I stack Multistrike as best as I can, and there are times when I forsake a piece of new loot of higher item level that has no Multi on it or has one less gem slot. My "equipped ilvl" is almost always ~1.0 below my "maximal possible ilvl" (both of which can be seen on my armory profile). However, that's not because I follow some guide which tells me to stack Multi: I always test the old gear against the new gear on SimCraft with the common builds I use and customized APL that reflects my habit. I also realize that the reason why Multi has such a significant edge over other secondary stats is the "+85%" part of Brain Freeze, which can only be procced by Frostbolts: if I don't cast Frostbolts, Multi isn't that great after all; if I don't cast enough Frostbolts during glyphed IV or proc of http://www.wowhead.com/spell=159676/mar ... -frostwolf, the benefit of these is not fully utilized; if I ever overwrite a BF charge, I diminish the value of the Multi I went to such length to stack. Well, maybe you don't agree with all of my arguments here, but I at least seek to gear myself with the rationality I can muster, instead of "fear of loss".

2. Rotation. A question that has perplexed me for a very long time: say, I pop IV and Frozen Orb in a GCD #1, and throw my PC at the feet of the target in the GCD #2, by GCD #3 I'll most likely have 2 charges of FoF already. If I also have 2 charges of IN at the moment, should I consume a charge of FoF first or a charge of IN first? After all, both are very hard hitting. I used to IN first, because the DPET of IN is slightly higher but more importantly, as Berlinia said, I'm just uncomfortable to see the cooldown of IN not rotating, which may result in one less IN in the entire fight. It's only later that I rethought about it: I can always consume both IN charges before PC expires, so why not throw a couple of extra lances? However, that argument has its own flaw: more lance = less Frostbolt = less FFB + IV (glyphed) less utilized. Therefore, I'm yet to confirm which way is better overall. But Berlinia reminds me of that, devoid of loss is not always achievable. In fact, even this "Orb before PC" habit of mine is frown upon by some and contradicts many guides. I do it out of the utter discomfort of seeing a PC sitting idle for even a single GCD. I'll reevaluate this habit of mine, to see if it's actually good or if it's out of irrational fear/discomfort.

3. DPS loss to handle mechanics. A corpse do 0 DPS, and a problem of mine is holding that too firmly some times. For example, we all know a trick to handle http://www.wowhead.com/spell=162370/crystalline-barrage is to pop AT, Blink away, do some damage, and cancel AT to port myself back (so that the barrage will head back and expire before it can reach me). The reason why I hesitate to do it is because http://www.wowhead.com/spell=162518/earthen-pillar could appear near the original position of mine, and port myself back at the wrong time will result in death (and port myself right into the 3D model of the pillar will cost me extra time to run out, or even get glitched and stuck). This serves as an example of my readiness to take DPS loss to ensure mechanics is safely handled. Let's face the fact: I'm a low-mid level raider and have zero access (hence, practice) on beta/PTR. It's hard for me to deal with mechanics without compromising my DPS, and I have to make a choice.


Overall, thanks for the post that inspired all these gibberish of mine ^_^

[Berlinia]

You made a nice point on dpps loss by handling mechanics. The reason maybe why some people on't move out of for example kargath flame gout, is because losing that slight dps is more important to them than taking less damag.

[zhengma]

Along that line, a much less appreciated point is: "there exists scenarios where the DPS loss for one is the DPS gain for the rest of the raid."

I hate it when my class is regarded as simply "artillery" and appreciated for and only for our damage. That's why I've volunteered to (or never chicken out when my RL asks me to) soak/kite http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158986/, manage the http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156157/ stacks with the melee, operate a flamethrower, soak http://www.wowhead.com/spell=161612/, pass http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156238/ out of the crowd*, and such. Either because mage is suitable for the task, or because there's no other class more suitable present during a raid night, or because I have comparatively better awareness than my fellow raiders.

These are, no doubt, DPS loss, but if I'm convinced it's a bigger DPS gain to someone else or it helps to reduce casualty, I'll still gladly do it: I get the boss kill credit regardless, which is more direly needed by a guild at the level of mine than some orange/purple percentage on WCL.

*We're employing a different strategy now, where no one in particular is assigned to handle the brand.

[Dutchmagoz]

I see this issue so much with people, especially on things like munching procs. A 10% chance to munch a proc for 30k damage at the gain of always getting 10k damage is worth it, but most people won't take it because it doesn't "feel" right.

On the other side, many people seem to play the lotto, which on its own is a completely rigged scenario where like 40% of all money leaves the prize pool, so statistically you always lose out, yet people keep buying tickets....

[Berlinia]

It was after such a discussion dutch that i made this post. And concerning the lotto Orwell had a nice opinion of it in 1984

[zhengma]

Well, since this post is about psychology, there are some psychological phenomena that occurs to me, and I feel they're related to, but not fully explained by, the original post. Maybe someone can analyze them for me?

1. If I don't have a FoF or BF proc for an extended period, I can be chill with that and spam some Frostbolt without frustration. If I don't have an AM proc for an extended period, I can be chill with that and readily Barrage if there's nothing better to do. However, if I don't have a Heating Up proc for but a couple of Fireball casts, I start to feel annoyed; worse still, if the Heating Up proc didn't end up upgraded and just vanish into the air, I immediately have an impulse to tear my monitor off and snap it in halves on my leg and to bark at someone or something (almost did that in guild ventrilo once).

2. Due to limited skill and distractions, I overflow and overwrite an FoF proc every now and then, but I'm chill with that; I overflow an AM proc every now and then, but I'm chill with that too. However, if I have a Heating Up and a Pyro!, and I didn't consume the Pyro! before the Heating Up getting upgraded overwriting it, I immediately have an impulse to find a hammer and smack my head.


Why do I have these unnatural rages? Am I the only one raging over these? And how should I overcome them?

[Berlinia]

@Zhengma.... I guess you could say Fire makes you be quite.... hot headed
But I think Fire in general resolves around getting pyroblasts. Frost and Arcane have much more to them than just AM/FoF procs. So losing out on Pyro's is sooo much more annoying than the rest.
The best way to overcome them is get more crit

[Akraen]

Always haste, don't care what I lose!

[TLTeo]

Lol Akraen xD

[zhengma]

Always haste, don't care what I lose!

My major problem with DPS specs that stack Haste is: playing them usually results in higher keyboard wearing.

[Ayonjia]

love this thread.

[Vatti]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMk5sMHj58I" target="_blank

All the psychology you need.

[Berlinia]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMk5sMHj58I

All the psychology you need.

I already dinged level 100 I won the game.

[Mageski]

If I had a nickel for every conversation I've had arguing over exactly this...

[Berlinia]

Grandpa Duck knows one nickel is enough!