Monday, August 24, 2009
DPS again
As mentioned in my previous post, I'm leveling a Horde Mage. I'm liking it so far (only 22ish though). The barrens is as long as I remember it from my old days of Horde, but the mounts at 20 is helping alot. I've also taken a note from a friend of mine and taken herbalism in order to make gold since I don't have a high level character feeding me money. I'm sitting on 20g at my level and I've already bought my regular mount (5g). I might even be able to afford a glyph or two soon.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
My Bad
So I may have over reacted when I talked about 3.2 changes. Apparently in addition to the Earth Shock change they also changed Wind Shock into Wind Shear. This new spell works like Wind Shock in that it lowers your threat but it has some added benefits.
1. It's off the GCD. You can cast it whenever you want without worrying about your rotation (for the most part).
2. It's an interrupt. Which negates my whole thing about the Earth Shock change. I never cast Earth Shock except as an interrupt and the damage was a bonus.
Just wanted to clear that up.
In other "news"...I'm thinking of switching guilds, and even more so, switching factions. And I think I'm going to shed my Tanking role and go back to my DPS roots. There's more feedback (i.e. quantitative numbers) with a DPS class (which also means it's more visible to other people, for better or worse).
** Originally this was going to be a "tangent", but as I type it up I find myself wanting to go into more detail than a "tangent" should have.
1. It's off the GCD. You can cast it whenever you want without worrying about your rotation (for the most part).
2. It's an interrupt. Which negates my whole thing about the Earth Shock change. I never cast Earth Shock except as an interrupt and the damage was a bonus.
Just wanted to clear that up.
In other "news"...I'm thinking of switching guilds, and even more so, switching factions. And I think I'm going to shed my Tanking role and go back to my DPS roots. There's more feedback (i.e. quantitative numbers) with a DPS class (which also means it's more visible to other people, for better or worse).
** Originally this was going to be a "tangent", but as I type it up I find myself wanting to go into more detail than a "tangent" should have.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Rant, among other things
Rant first. I dislike people who dislike the Draenei because they are "Space Goats." Yes, Draenei come from a different world and escaped it's destruction in a space ship. But did you know that this same world is the origins of the Orcs? So it's ok that the Orcs traveled from their home world to Azeroth through the Dark Portal, but it's not ok that the Draenei traveled from that same world to Azeroth in a spaceship? That's kind of hypocritical.
Maybe it's because Orcs are more of a staple in the Warcraft world than the Draenei, having been in the Warcraft games. I have not played the RTS Warcraft games, so I don't know if the Draenei are mentioned there at all. I have read the Warcraft novels though and the Draenei are definitely mentioned in them. These books were published in 2001, six years before the Burning Crusade expansion came out.
While for many people the Draenei may have come out of left field, I'd like to give Blizzard more credit than that even if their brief mention in the Novels was never fleshed out. The simple fact that they remembered the Draenei and used them means either a good memory on Blizzard's part or they were on the table for awhile waiting to be used.
/rant off
In other news, apparently Blizzard named a gun after BRK. You can read about it on his new blog site (since he has stopped actually playing). If you enjoyed BRK's WoW blog (or you've never read him and you have a sense of humor), I recommend switching gears and reading his personal blog.
Maybe it's because Orcs are more of a staple in the Warcraft world than the Draenei, having been in the Warcraft games. I have not played the RTS Warcraft games, so I don't know if the Draenei are mentioned there at all. I have read the Warcraft novels though and the Draenei are definitely mentioned in them. These books were published in 2001, six years before the Burning Crusade expansion came out.
While for many people the Draenei may have come out of left field, I'd like to give Blizzard more credit than that even if their brief mention in the Novels was never fleshed out. The simple fact that they remembered the Draenei and used them means either a good memory on Blizzard's part or they were on the table for awhile waiting to be used.
/rant off
In other news, apparently Blizzard named a gun after BRK. You can read about it on his new blog site (since he has stopped actually playing). If you enjoyed BRK's WoW blog (or you've never read him and you have a sense of humor), I recommend switching gears and reading his personal blog.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
3.2 is coming
Another post in the same day! Insanity!
Well, 3.2 is suppose to hit today and I was going over class changes for the Paladin and the Shaman again. Overall I like the changes (especially the Totem Bar change...been waiting for that for awhile), but one of the Shaman changes caught my eye today:
Earth Shock: Redesigned. This spell no longer interrupts spell casting
I fear (purely speculation) that this is a PvP change since Earth Shock has a relatively short CD and perhaps it was deemed too powerful in PvP. From a PvE standpoint, I used Earth Shock a lot to interrupt spells, specifically the Eye Beams on that gauntlet after Heigan in Naxx and also on the Watchers during Razorscale. It was my way of helping reduce damage to the raid during those fights, and I will miss it dearly.
Even so, I still think 3.2 will be a good patch and we all will learn to adjust to changes that have been made. And maybe, just maybe, I can keep my Shaman Hit capped without using that JC Hit trinket that gives an insane 96 Hit (with Two Hit Dragon's Eyes).
Well, 3.2 is suppose to hit today and I was going over class changes for the Paladin and the Shaman again. Overall I like the changes (especially the Totem Bar change...been waiting for that for awhile), but one of the Shaman changes caught my eye today:
Earth Shock: Redesigned. This spell no longer interrupts spell casting
I fear (purely speculation) that this is a PvP change since Earth Shock has a relatively short CD and perhaps it was deemed too powerful in PvP. From a PvE standpoint, I used Earth Shock a lot to interrupt spells, specifically the Eye Beams on that gauntlet after Heigan in Naxx and also on the Watchers during Razorscale. It was my way of helping reduce damage to the raid during those fights, and I will miss it dearly.
Even so, I still think 3.2 will be a good patch and we all will learn to adjust to changes that have been made. And maybe, just maybe, I can keep my Shaman Hit capped without using that JC Hit trinket that gives an insane 96 Hit (with Two Hit Dragon's Eyes).
Ulduar Raiding
Another long spell of not posting. And again I'll say that it's just how I am :(. I get topics I want to write about sometimes, but it's never on a consistent basis. This time around it's raiding.
Our guild does a weekly Ulduar 10man raid. It has been going on for about 16 weeks. In that time we have managed to kill 5 bosses: Flame Leviathan, XT, Razorscale, Kologarn, and Auriaya (but only once). It's my personal opinion that we aren't doing well in here. This is how our progression went.
Flame Leviathan is a joke. I'm fairly sure we killed him the first time we stepped into Ulduar (after a wipe or two as we got the vehicle controls down).
Our next target was XT, skipping the two optional bosses. This was the "original" or at the least harder version of XT with the lower enrage timer. We just couldn't put out the DPS to down him under the enrage timer (but to be fair, we were getting close). We were making it to the enrage timer though. Our problem was a mix of tactics and raw DPS output. We were positioning XT at the stairs, meaning all four trash piles had adds streaming from them. That left one DPS on the heart (along with the tank, who would be me). Shockingly enough, we actually downed XT with this tactic after the enrage timer was lengthened. Now we tank him to the side and only get two trash piles spawning allowing more DPS to focus on the heart. XT is not a problem for us now (if we have our regular healers).
After XT, we hit up Kologarn. I don't remember exactly, but I'm *fairly* sure we one shot him our first try. After XT (the way we were doing him), Kologarn was easy. These days, Kologarn is our stopping point however. We wipe a few times before downing him every week. Someone dies from the Eye Beams, either a healer or a DPS. If it's a healer, then we have a healing issue and people start dying when they're grabbed by the Right Arm, or I go down as the main tank because healing becomes too thin. If it's a DPSer that goes down, we don't have enough DPS left to free the person grabbed by the Right Arm meaning we get picked off one at a time till we wipe.
Of all the bosses (other than FL) I think Razorscale is our easiest kill. I know when I'm tanking I don't feel the pressure of enrage timers like I do on other bosses. The stacking thing that Razorscale does doesn't seem to do much, since we've never had to worry about it even when our DPS has been low. The only way we wipe on this boss is if an overzealous DPS dies in the Mole Phase, and even then we can sometimes make a comeback.
The details of our only Auriaya kill are fuzzy to me. I do know that we didn't directly kill the Defender, since the Void Zone he drops is what was killing us every time on other attempts. Other than that we just pulled out the DPS and healing that week.
And that's it, that's all we've done in Ulduar. Some of the problem is that we only go into Ulduar once a week and by the time we kill the bosses we can, we don't have time to try any of the others. We basically need a flawless kill on each of the bosses to even be able to attempt Auriaya. I'm hoping with 3.2 we can get better gear elsewhere and dive deeper into Ulduar, but from what I'm hearing the fights aren't all about the gear.
Our guild does a weekly Ulduar 10man raid. It has been going on for about 16 weeks. In that time we have managed to kill 5 bosses: Flame Leviathan, XT, Razorscale, Kologarn, and Auriaya (but only once). It's my personal opinion that we aren't doing well in here. This is how our progression went.
Flame Leviathan is a joke. I'm fairly sure we killed him the first time we stepped into Ulduar (after a wipe or two as we got the vehicle controls down).
Our next target was XT, skipping the two optional bosses. This was the "original" or at the least harder version of XT with the lower enrage timer. We just couldn't put out the DPS to down him under the enrage timer (but to be fair, we were getting close). We were making it to the enrage timer though. Our problem was a mix of tactics and raw DPS output. We were positioning XT at the stairs, meaning all four trash piles had adds streaming from them. That left one DPS on the heart (along with the tank, who would be me). Shockingly enough, we actually downed XT with this tactic after the enrage timer was lengthened. Now we tank him to the side and only get two trash piles spawning allowing more DPS to focus on the heart. XT is not a problem for us now (if we have our regular healers).
After XT, we hit up Kologarn. I don't remember exactly, but I'm *fairly* sure we one shot him our first try. After XT (the way we were doing him), Kologarn was easy. These days, Kologarn is our stopping point however. We wipe a few times before downing him every week. Someone dies from the Eye Beams, either a healer or a DPS. If it's a healer, then we have a healing issue and people start dying when they're grabbed by the Right Arm, or I go down as the main tank because healing becomes too thin. If it's a DPSer that goes down, we don't have enough DPS left to free the person grabbed by the Right Arm meaning we get picked off one at a time till we wipe.
Of all the bosses (other than FL) I think Razorscale is our easiest kill. I know when I'm tanking I don't feel the pressure of enrage timers like I do on other bosses. The stacking thing that Razorscale does doesn't seem to do much, since we've never had to worry about it even when our DPS has been low. The only way we wipe on this boss is if an overzealous DPS dies in the Mole Phase, and even then we can sometimes make a comeback.
The details of our only Auriaya kill are fuzzy to me. I do know that we didn't directly kill the Defender, since the Void Zone he drops is what was killing us every time on other attempts. Other than that we just pulled out the DPS and healing that week.
And that's it, that's all we've done in Ulduar. Some of the problem is that we only go into Ulduar once a week and by the time we kill the bosses we can, we don't have time to try any of the others. We basically need a flawless kill on each of the bosses to even be able to attempt Auriaya. I'm hoping with 3.2 we can get better gear elsewhere and dive deeper into Ulduar, but from what I'm hearing the fights aren't all about the gear.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Lore
Been awhile, I know. I'm horrible that way. I'd like to blame it on my uncharacteristic illness (incidentally, Strep Throat != not fun), but that only accounts for a handful of days.
What I have been doing recently is reading the Warcraft novels. I got the Archive which contains the first four: Day of the Dragon, Lord of the Clans, The Last Guardian, and Of Blood and Honor. Needless to say, I'm enjoying them. I think this is partly because they're decently written and partially because they are familiar from playing WoW. Lord of the Clans and The Last Guardian were especially reminiscent because they are the story of Thrall and Karazhan, respectively.
It got me to wondering which part I was enjoying more. Did I only like them because they're part of the game I play, or do they stand on their own merit? In the long run it doesn't matter. I got my enjoyment out of it, and there's nothing else that matters beyond that in a book.
Short post, but it's a post. See you next time.
What I have been doing recently is reading the Warcraft novels. I got the Archive which contains the first four: Day of the Dragon, Lord of the Clans, The Last Guardian, and Of Blood and Honor. Needless to say, I'm enjoying them. I think this is partly because they're decently written and partially because they are familiar from playing WoW. Lord of the Clans and The Last Guardian were especially reminiscent because they are the story of Thrall and Karazhan, respectively.
It got me to wondering which part I was enjoying more. Did I only like them because they're part of the game I play, or do they stand on their own merit? In the long run it doesn't matter. I got my enjoyment out of it, and there's nothing else that matters beyond that in a book.
Short post, but it's a post. See you next time.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Elemental Shaman Pre-Naxx Gear. . .sorta
I was planning on listing some options for Elemental Shamans pre-Naxx, but my research wasn't going well. It is my opinion that the number one stat for Elemental Shamans (or any DPS really) is Hit Rating until you are hit capped. Unfortunately there are about zero (decent) Mail spell caster items with hit on them that you can get from Heroics or reputation vendors.
What this left me to was to just find whatever items I could with Hit rating on them. For reference, elemental shamans with Elemental Precision need 368 hit to be hit capped for Naxx. If you're a JC, there is a lovely trinket Twilight Serpent and you'll be able to pack this with two Rigid Dragon's Eye. This is a huge hit rating for one slot weighing in at 96. If you're not a JC, you won't be able to get this trinket or the gems.
If you're into PvP (or if even if you're not) the Wintersgrasp Mail Spellcaster armor has hit on it. It'll take commitment to get all the items though and there's some less than optimal stats for PvE (resiliance) but it is an option for hit items. I started down this route and ended up finding the JC stuff and stopped doing WG as I don't enjoy PvP. Your milage may vary.
There's a cloak in normal HoL (Cape of Seething Steam) that has a splatter of hit (29) on it and is easy to get (or atleast you've got more than one chance a day at it).
All your gem slots should be filled with Rigid Autumn's Glow (exalted with SoH to get the pattern) if you're still low on hit.
There are some enchants available that give hit. You should have Icewalker on your boots anyway, there's Percision to gloves, and if you're desperate there's the Titanium Weapon Chain that a BS can make and old world (BC) stuff from Sha'tar (Arcanum of Power)
And lastly, there's a food buff from Worg Tartare that gives 40 hit to bump you up that last bit during raids.
Again, I stress the hit cap for Elemental Shamans with 3/3 Elemental Percision is 368. If you have more than that it's too much and is wasted.
That's the end of the factual stuff, and now for an anecdote. Walked into Naxx on my Shaman with about 360 hit rating (couldn't push it to the full 368), 1600 SP self buffed, and 20%crit. . .walked away with 2k dps overall for a full clear. The guild master commented that I was pushing good numbers for the gear I was wearing (which I agree with, was only hoping for about 1.6-1.7k) and I fully attribute that to my hit rating. Missing takes away alot of your DPS. I also walked away with 7 pieces of gear, which is just crazy to think about.
What this left me to was to just find whatever items I could with Hit rating on them. For reference, elemental shamans with Elemental Precision need 368 hit to be hit capped for Naxx. If you're a JC, there is a lovely trinket Twilight Serpent and you'll be able to pack this with two Rigid Dragon's Eye. This is a huge hit rating for one slot weighing in at 96. If you're not a JC, you won't be able to get this trinket or the gems.
If you're into PvP (or if even if you're not) the Wintersgrasp Mail Spellcaster armor has hit on it. It'll take commitment to get all the items though and there's some less than optimal stats for PvE (resiliance) but it is an option for hit items. I started down this route and ended up finding the JC stuff and stopped doing WG as I don't enjoy PvP. Your milage may vary.
There's a cloak in normal HoL (Cape of Seething Steam) that has a splatter of hit (29) on it and is easy to get (or atleast you've got more than one chance a day at it).
All your gem slots should be filled with Rigid Autumn's Glow (exalted with SoH to get the pattern) if you're still low on hit.
There are some enchants available that give hit. You should have Icewalker on your boots anyway, there's Percision to gloves, and if you're desperate there's the Titanium Weapon Chain that a BS can make and old world (BC) stuff from Sha'tar (Arcanum of Power)
And lastly, there's a food buff from Worg Tartare that gives 40 hit to bump you up that last bit during raids.
Again, I stress the hit cap for Elemental Shamans with 3/3 Elemental Percision is 368. If you have more than that it's too much and is wasted.
That's the end of the factual stuff, and now for an anecdote. Walked into Naxx on my Shaman with about 360 hit rating (couldn't push it to the full 368), 1600 SP self buffed, and 20%crit. . .walked away with 2k dps overall for a full clear. The guild master commented that I was pushing good numbers for the gear I was wearing (which I agree with, was only hoping for about 1.6-1.7k) and I fully attribute that to my hit rating. Missing takes away alot of your DPS. I also walked away with 7 pieces of gear, which is just crazy to think about.
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