I’m playing the game! Currently unemployed, I have lots of time to WoW, and not so much desire to blog. Zerei is 80 and holy, my DK is 72 and plodding along, my other alts are stagnant. Once I get a job again we might see more activity out of me, but for now, have fun!

Hello!

I am stuck in a combination of getting ready to move and not having much to write about anyway! I will be away from a computer for a while here before Wrath hits. I’ll be back after the 13th!

Take care.

Alternate title: “oh noes that bt mob just hit me for 1.3k in zerker stance what will i DO also happy halloween”

Went on a run to Black Temple with my warrior with my guild and the guild we often raid with (this was mostly us, though…I think they only had 5 or so present).  And um…well.  As I mentioned while I was there, BT seems about as easy as Kara was, pre-nerf.  And let me tell you, Kara got pretty easy as time went on and people got better gear.  I haven’t been in since (except to kill what’shisface with the guitar axe, and I don’t think that was particularly representative of a real run), but I bet it’s a slaughterhouse for all the poor ghosts still residing in Medivh’s old haunt.

AND THAT MY FRIENDS IS ALL THE HALLOWEEN-THEMED MADNESS I WILL INDULGE IN

(Perhaps I shouldn’t read Dinosaur Comics before blogging…)

Anyway, we killed Najen’tus..Naj’entus…whatev. He was easy, though we did wipe once because we thought we should stand close to each other. The second fight we got him shortly after he put his second shield up. Cake.

Fought our way out to the area where Supremus is then. Quite a bit of trash there, but all very easy (again, yes, because of the nerf). If anything ever hit me (which was rare, we mostly zerged everything and let a paladin tank it), it didn’t hit anywhere near as hard as I might have expected. Hardest hit I think I took was for 3k…and well, Niem’s dps gear is basically all pvp gear, so against 15k health (with raid buffs), that’s really not a big deal. The mobs must have been accomplishing very little trying to attack our tanks.

We made some attempts on Supremus after clearing all that trash. Oh goodness, a fight where people have to pay attention (myself included). We didn’t kill him after I think about 4 attempts? I died a number of times to Hateful Strikes…only once because I entered melee before the designated off-tank did. Also perished once from a volcano that sprouted up under the boss’ foot, which I did not notice until after it killed me.

Anyway, this was my first raid (nay, instance run) using Titan’s Grip. I didn’t think I was going to be raiding up until about an hour beforehand, and while people were convening to get started I was running around on my alts trying to mash more +hit onto Niemandra’s gear. I ended up buying two Lionseyes for about 225 gold each (that seemed like a good deal to me, so far as epic gems go) and making them into +10 hit rating gems, putting one each into my Vengeful helm and Merciless shoulders. I switched the +15 str enchant on my gloves out for +15 hit (used to be spell hit only, yay stat homogenization), using my mainstay Furious Deathgrips in that slot. I opted to use my Violet Signet of the Assassin over a Vindicator’s ring. Lastly, I bought the SSO revered 2h axe and put Savagery on it. All in all, I came out to 164 hit rating, a little more than 10%. With Precision (3%), it’s not quite the (current) 12% hit needed, but is a lot closer than I thought I would have been able to get. My dps throughout the run felt ok, comparitively. It hurt to see a Bloodthirst or Whirlwind miss from time to time, but I’m pretty sure I did more damage overall than I would have using a pre-3.0 spec.

However incomplete and inconsistent, Blizzard has slowly been phasing in better means for each class to minimize downtime.

Forgive me for the ethnic slur, but I heard once that playing a mage had similarities to being Irish. The process for both goes drink -> fight -> drink -> fight…

That is downtime. The necessity to stop killing mobs in order to replenish whatever resources are needed to continue to do so at a reliable pace. Sure, as a mage, you could engage another mob when you have no mana left. The game doesn’t stop you. However, the ability to do it with any degree of speed just isn’t there. You can’t cast any of your spells and would have to rely on wanding. And even then, the mob might do more damage to you than you do to it, so indeed it might be impossible to continue without restoring your mana.

For the other classes with mana, some fare better than others. Hunters for instance can rely on pet dps and autoshot to bring mobs down at a decent pace. It doesn’t nearly get close to what a hunter can do using other shots (arcane, etc) but it’s definitely faster than some other classes without their mana. Warlocks get lifetap, an ability which exchanges an amount of health for a dose of mana, so for a warlock to really truly be out of mana is an interesting situation indeed. Druids spend much of their time in forms while leveling, not requiring much of their mana except to heal after fights (unless they are balance; I don’t personally know how leveling goes for balance druids, they might have downtime issues).

Even the non-mana users, rogues and warriors, have downtime issues, mostly with their health bars. A warrior with little health remaining can do the same amount of damage regardless, but has few tools with which to continue if his or her health is running out, and, of course, will die when it does. Can’t do much damage then. Rogues don’t have nearly as many issues due to the ability to control the fights they engage in using stuns and other hampering effects on their opponents to reduce damage intake, but still have to stop and eat or bandage if things go sour.

However, as things have progressed, downtime for many classes has been lowered or nearly removed.

Mages now have Evocation, an ability which restores a great deal of mana, as a base ability. It’s been that way for a while now, but there was a time that mages had to spec into Arcane to get this. With the increased value of spirit, mage downtime will probably decrease. In addition, Frost-spec Water Elementals, if improved, restore mana over time. Arcane mages get increased mana regeneration while casting. However, Fire mages that do not use Mage Armor or spec far enough into Arcane for the aforementioned regeneration are stuck and have to rely on speedy kills in order to continue unhampered.

Druids’ Improved Leader of the Pack restores health when getting a critical hit, albeit at a maximum of once per six seconds (and to groupmates, no less). In addition, Innervate was made baseline, meaning all druids (levels 40+) have access to a mana restoration ability.

Image from ripten.com.

Warriors still have few tools for health regen and typically have to rely on food or bandages to continue fighting. However, Blood Craze restores health when the warrior receives a critical hit, and Bloodthirst will restore health after used. However, the utility of Blood Craze only exists if the warrior is being attacked, and Bloodthirst is deep enough in the Fury tree to limit it to Fury-spec warriors. As such, I expect the Fury tree to be the best for leveling due to the lack of downtime. Second Wind, in the Arms tree, will restore some health, but the circumstances under which it does so are much more slim in a soloing environment…those being stunning or rooting effects. Protection relies on taking less damage altogether to continue fighting and lacks self-healing abilities.

Hunters have Aspect of the Viper now, which restores mana to them when attacking at the expense of doing less damage while it’s active. (Its original incarnation featured it restoring quite a bit of mana over time and was a more primary aspect than it is now.) I don’t believe they have any significant self-healing abilities; hunters rely on their pets taking most of the incoming damage, and do have abilities to help keep said pets alive. Marksman and Survival hunters might still have issues if their pets do not hold aggro, but the pet talent trees in 3.0.2 may have fixed this at least somewhat. As well, Survival has a “replenishment effect” within, restoring quite a bit of mana both for the hunter and his or her groupmates.

Image from starstore.com.

Warlocks remain nearly immune from downtime, especially now that Soul Leech has an improved version which will also restore mana to Destruction-spec warlocks. (Destruction, however, seems to remain the worst for soloing strictly due to downtime, due to the lack of self-healing tools available to them (Soul Leech does not seem to happen often enough to keep the warlock going for as long as the abilities possessed by other classes).) Demonology warlocks, like hunters, rely on their pets to take damage. Unfortunately for them, warlock pet aggro is not quite as good as that of hunters, and can be easily pulled from. (Buffs I missed in 3.0.2 may have fixed this.) Affliction, and the act of “drain-tanking,” would seem to remain the best soloing spec for Warlocks. Between Siphon Life and a near-uninterruptible Drain Life, and the new Haunt which also restores health, and Improved Life Tap and Dark Pact, unless the affliction-spec warlock is besieged by six mobs at once, downtime should not be necessary*.

*They might still not need it, even in that case.

Paladins used to have quite a few issues with downtime. Mana inefficiency for both Holy and Ret made Prot the typical ideal soloing spec. Using Seal/Judgement of Light/Wisdom, they would pull large groups of mobs and use consecrate to fight them all at once, continuing through with the Seal/Judgement procs. Now, however, Ret has a replenishment effect, and Divine Storm can provide some healing while in combat. Art of War will offer a buff that makes Flash of Light instant for more mid-combat healing. The revamped Judgement system and removal of Seal/Judgement of the Crusader makes it yet further possible to avoid downtime, since no longer do paladins suffer a loss in dps using Judgement of Wisdom or Light. That last part, in addition to the consolidation of spellpower, unfortunately, is the only thing helping Holy paladins solo, however. And Improved Blessing of Wisdom, but they’ve had that for as long as I can remember.

For shaman, well, I don’t know much about how it used to be. I know I leveled mine as enhancement, and it wasn’t exactly an easy non-stop run through the levels. Drinking was required for me until level 50, when Shamanistic Rage became available. However, the utility of the buff is limited while soloing, as killing things quickly meant you would be done with a mob in a couple seconds, having restored little mana in the process, and have to run over to another, the buff still ticking down. As well, crit chance outside of talents for shaman is scarce until post-60, so the old Shamanistic Focus talent was often unused (it used to provide a 60% mana cost reduction to shocks after critting in melee). However, that’s a flat 45% now, making it also useful for other specs and lower-level shaman. In addition, 3.0.2 made Water Shield available to lower level shaman, reducing downtime nearly completely. Enhancement is quite set as a leveling spec now. Elemental now has Thunderstorm, which restores quite a bit of mana while also doing damage and knocking melee-range opponents away, but I don’t think the mana it restores is enough to really reduce downtime by much. Lastly, Restoration doesn’t have much going for it in the leveling department, but thanks to the consolidation of spellpower, isn’t quite so inept in dealing damage any longer.

As for rogues, I don’t think they received many changes to help them with any downtime they experienced. I couldn’t find any evidence of anything glancing over their 3.0.2 talent trees either. They still have to rely on control.

Image from dwarfpriest.com.

Priests have had Spirit Tap for as long as I can remember, and that certainly is quite helpful to them. Continuing down the Shadow tree leads to Vampiric Touch and Embrace, both abilities which restore resources the Priest needs in order to function. Added in 3.0.2 was Improved Spirit Tap, which increased the priest’s spirit by a percentage after getting a critical hit with Mind Blast or Shadow Word: Death. As for Discipline and Holy, I’m not sure they received much of anything. However, Spirit tap is still on the first tier of Shadow, available to any priest should they wish to spend the points there, and many Disc/Holy priests are quite heavy on Spirit.

Image from gearfuse.com.

Lastly, I know Blood-spec Death Knights have significant self-healing abilities, and Unholy ones get a pet to share some of the damage. I’m not sure what Frost DKs have available.

And that’s that. Where before the game was more harsh, requiring most classes (exceptions being the hunter and warlock) to spend time between some fights recovering, it has gotten easier to advance, or farm mats, or what-have-you. Some of the specs still need work I think, but overall the devs are pushing the right ideas. Now they just need to make levels 1-60 interesting again.

Right, so I’ve actually been playing it for some time now, but I’m actually leveling a druid! Epakoto the tauren just hit level 40 yesterday and nabbed Leader of the Pack for that oh-so-good +5% crit chance buff.

For the longest time, I haven’t been able to level a druid past the 10-20 range. And levels 1 through 10 tip so far towards unbearable it’s just mind-numbingly frustrating. Much like hunters who spend their first 10 levels without a pet, druids spend theirs without any forms and are forced to act like some sort of hybrid balance druid. Hybrid spellcaster mixed with some sort of melee toon without any special abilities. Yep. Cast Wrath a couple times til the mob reaches you and then auto attack until it dies.

Bear form at level 10 does not really help. If you go bear, you get to act like a warrior for their first 10 levels, spamming your own version of heroic strike without the benefit of Charge to build any initial rage. What I ended up doing was casting one wrath and following that up immediately with a moonfire, and then closing in to melee for the rest of the mob’s health bar. This seemed to work better (and maybe be a little more stimulating) than attacking stuff in bear form.

What I’ve heard is true ehough, though. It does get better with Cat form. In addition, shortly after 20, I made it to 24 and started leveling right alongside a friend who is playing an enhancement shaman. The two work well together, especially with the group buffs provided by Unleashed Rage (+10% AP when the shaman crits) and LotP (+5% chance to crit). As well, now that she’s got Stormstrike, everything we attack dies pretty quick-like.

If we fight an elite (one for a group quest or whatever) or end up taking on two many mobs, I usually switch to bear and start spamming swipe to keep them all on me. With a decent amount of dodge and way more armor in that form, it tends to work better that way I think. She’ll keep me healed as we beat them all down. Otherwise, she is usually “tanking” (leading dps a lot from SS+WF burst usually) and if she needs healing I’ll toss a Rejuvenation and shift back, continuing the rampage.

Granted, the mobs were all levels 36-39 (with me at 39 and her at 40) or so, but we stormed through the entirety of Zub’dwai or whatever it’s called there north of Grom’gol. It was pretty fun.

These two would probably level all the way to 70 and eventually 80 together quite well.

Zombies!

A+, Blizzard. From what I can tell, no one even saw it coming.

WLK is here in exactly two weeks. The excitement builds!

Well, contrary to my last post, I guess I have to pick up and move on, as 3.0.3 is just about here already.

It would appear to mostly be buffs and bug fixes. Personally I regard most nerfs to be buffs for the sake of gameplay, and is similarly how I’m regarding the “big Ret nerf”. Here’s the things I like the most in the notes:

5. Bloodthirst (Warriors): Cooldown reduced to 5 sec. I’m not sure of the reasoning here, but apparenly Fury Warriors were being out-performed. Hopefully they’ve got enough incoming rage to compensate for this.

4. Art of War (Paladins): No longer increases critical strike damage on Judgements, Crusader Strike, and Divine Storm, instead increases all damage done by those abilities by a smaller amount. This isn’t really a nerf at all, and more of a redirection of damage increases. Apparently too bursty, the crit damage has been reduced and is now instead a flat damage increase to the same abilities regardless of them critting or not.

3. Judgements of the Pure (Paladins): Haste increased to 3/6/9/12/15%. Any paladins out there still holy who care? All I’ve seen are S3/T6-shouldered Rets lately.

2. Removed “A Mask for All Occassions” as criteria for the “Hallowed Be thy Name” meta achievement. Woot, this means I get to be “Niemandra the Hallowed” whenever the patch hits. I might go and get all of the stuff done for my paladin too, since there are some people still farming that boss (and, bonus, she’s already got the pet).

1. Titan’s Grip Warriors): Changed to 12% penalty instead of 15%. (This has actually been updated to 5% instead of 12%.) SWEET, I might go back to Fury now. Yaaaaay. Apparently this (and the BT cooldown) was in response to the buff to WLK boss armor recently implemented in that beta. I hear the devs think it’s too much but are letting it play out to see what happens. I hope it’s either not too good to be reverted or they can find something other than a decreased chance to hit to force upon us. How about a 5% miss and 5% attack speed decrease? Something other than a huge +hit hurdle plz!

This doesn’t mean I’m done talking about 3.0.2 yet, but man, what a week it’s been for this little vertex of the internet.

I beat on a level 70 target dummy in Org for a bit on my shaman. Went 8/53/0, for Elemental Devastation and Ghost Wolves.

This has netted me an attack power increase but a critical strike chance decrease. I could probably make some headway by fitting in some more mail gear now that more of it is valuable to enhancement, but I’m thinking of specing elemental for the expansion to level alongside a destruction warlock anyway : )

Anyhow, here’s the deal. I am running oom before Shamanistic Rage’s cooldown is reset. I feel I can largely blame this on the lightning bolts I’m casting, but I really get down to about nothing with 25% of the cooldown still left to run. Perhaps this would be fixed with 5/5 Convection (10% cost reduction to most spells) instead of Concussion (5% increase to damage to same spells). But even with a mana totem and water shield both running (though I don’t have imp water shield or anything) I was out.

Perhaps this is a call to go out and get more intellect! With agi and intellect both providing attack power now, and 30% of a shaman’s attack power being converted to spellpower to empower shocks and lightning spells, it’s difficult for me to say what stat is best for shaman. I’ll wait and see what the folks at EJ find out.

/EDIT: Oh, and I suppose I should note…I didn’t have a dps meter running (for some reason, Afflicted was my only mod that stuck through the patch update), but it seemed pretty good. Spell dps is going to make up a much larger part of the enhancement shaman’s output percentages. I’m interested to see where that takes us.

Shockwave. Deals 75% of the warrior’s attack power to all targets in a cone in front of him/her, and then stuns all of those targets for 4 seconds. The number of targets is unlimited; it functions much like Cone of Cold.

With 2k+ unbuffed attack power in pvp gear using a shield, I was getting this thing to crit for 4.3k! And it’s an AoE! Well sort of. So far as cone effects are concerned, anyway.

I ran through RFD yesterday, helping a friend get some gear out of it (first instanced plate drops here! er, there!), and just watched the ability level groups of mobs. I can’t help but think this is a little overpowered, that it might scale a little too well. Especially if I had access to Impale (+20% crit damage)! Those 4.3k crits would be boosted to 5.1k!

In addition, Thunderclap does indeed hit an infinite number of targets, and also scales a little with AP. With Improved Thunderclap and Incite, I was seeing plenty of crits for 1k with Battle Shout and my Bloodlust Brooch trinket active.

That said, even if they scale Shockwave back a bit, I’m sure prot warriors can handle AoE tanking situations quite well. Perhaps even better, unfortunately, due to how Consecrate is a stationary AoE that does not follow a prot paladin.

We’ll see how this turns out.