Generic WoW

There is a bit of discussion at the moment regarding the priest Tier 8 gear on the public test realm.  Personally I don’t feel strongly about the gear.  Tier gear is nice to have, but not must-have, and tier set bonuses (at least since Wrath) have been nice to have without really adding a lot.  I mainly pick it up as it is usually great gear, but not best-in-slot, and is highly accessible via emblems.

However a couple of fellow bloggers have posted on the Tier 8 gear, starting when the information first became widely known, with grumbles about the T8 set bonuses and then moving into broader discussion.  Check out Holy Dueg’s post for more information.  Blood Elf Priestess has picked the discussion up and has some excellent general observations regarding priests, of both flavours, and their gearing.  Her stat priority (Spell Crit = Spell Power > Intellect = MP5/Spirit > Spell Haste > *) is pretty much the same as mine.  And I was particularly happy to see this comment,

“Also: because we’re losing our effectiveness of haste, it becomes a lesser needed stat.  Holy, from what I do understand, benefits stronger from haste than we do!”

I’ve long held the opinion that haste would be more useful to Holy than Disc, but been afraid to say so.  I’m usually the kind of person to swim against the flow if I think i’m right.  However I’ve not posted on the subject because I have no experience with Holy, and talents like Surge of Light might, like Disc’s Borrowed Time, reduce the the relative effectiveness of haste. *shrugs*

I’m not sure however I agree with Blood Elf Priestess, that the T8 2 piece bonus is “bunk”.  Like most most tier bonuses its a nice extra without being worth going out of your way to get.  Personally I cast a lot of Prayer of Healing (PoH).  Being Disc its my main AoE heal and most raid combats, both bosses and trash, have some form of AoE damage.  Making PoH targetable outside your group will probably mean i’ll be using it more, so 10% extra crit is very nice.

The T8 set bonuses do look pretty useless to Holy to me.  The 2 piece, 10% extra PoH critical chance, has some value to Holy, but less so than for Disc.  The 4 piece, 250 spell power after casting Power Word: Shield, is pretty much completely useless for Holy as they don’t use PW:S much.

As both Holy Dueg and Blood Elf Priestess appear to be alluding to Discipline has been doing very well since 3.0.2 went live.  We seem to be getting a lot of loving, which was needed, and are now at least as valuable as holy priests.  There is even a small voice in the back of my head saying, discipline are becoming too valuable.

Both specs are useful and are becoming increasingly distinctive in their styles.  Does this mean we need separate gear aimed at each spec?  I don’t think so, but then again i’m a bit of a slacker, and near enough is good enough.  I’m working on being a good player in good gear rather than an average player in excellent gear.  Only time will tell.

Posted in Priest

v3.1

I’ve been fiddling with a healing spreadsheet looking at the various options for 3.1 recently.  Did you all realise how good a spell Prayer of Mending (PoM) is?  Here’s some rough numbers based on a Disc priest with 1900 spell power and with appropriate glyphs and talents (ignoring crits).

• PoM first target - 518 mana - 2820 healing - 5.44 healing per mana (HPM) - pretty lackluster
• PoM second target - 518 mana - 5639 healing - 10.89 HPM - good
• PoM third target - 515 mana - 8459 healing - 16.33 HPM - excellent

Compare this to Penance (552 mana, 8202 healing, 14.85 HPM), PW:S (assumes full absorption, 556 mana, 7664 ‘healing’, 13.79 HPM) and Flash Heal (528 mana, 3563 healing, 6.75 HPM).

Holy numbers are even better.

• PoM first target - 460 mana - 3435 healing - 7.46 HPM - not bad
• PoM second target - 460 mana - 6870 healing - 14.92 HPM - excellent
• PoM third target - 460 mana - 10304 healing - 22.39 HPM - insanely efficient

As you can see, even without crits (or Divine Aegis) once your PoM heals a second person it becomes a very efficient spell with the potential for big returns on the 3rd, 4th and 5th jumps (plus potentially 6th with T7 2 piece bonus).

A couple of other things to remember is you get all this for a single global cool down and it is instant cast.  In AoE heavy fights PoM is regularly making all 5 jumps and healing for 16k or more.  Thats a lot of healing for 4-500 mana.  Remember also that you can only have one PoM in play at once and that each target can only have a single PoM on them at once.  The later only effects your casting the spell, not the jumps as the jumps only land on non-PoMed targets.

Also PoM jumps appear to only go a maximum of 30 yards and are effected by line-of-sight (can’t jump through walls).

Prayer of Mending Tracker add-on
A nice to have add-on, that I am currently using, is Prayer of Mending Tracker.  It tracks who has your PoM, how much time remains on its 30 second duration and how much each cast has healed.  There are other similar add-ons but I have found this one to work well.

How I use PoM
I cast it a lot and early in fights.  I almost always cast it on the tank, usually the main tank.  In fights with low AoE I tend to re-cast it in preference to Flash Heal and always if it has expired (i.e. no one has my PoM).

In fights with moderate or greater AoE I usually just recast it if it expires.  Its a set-and-forget type heal which goes about randomly healing people while I concentrated on actively triage healing.  Here is a quick look at 5 target, no-overheal Aoe healing.

Discipline

• Prayer of Healing - 1841 mana - 22651 healing - 12.30 HPM
• PoM - 518 mana - 14098 healing - 27.22 HPM

Holy

• Circle of Healing - 806 mana - 9554 healing - 11.86 HPM
• Prayer of Healing - 1473 mana - 27236 healing - 18.49 HPM
• PoM - 460 mana - 17174 healing - 37.31 HPM

PoH has more throughput (just, if you look at healing per second) but is much less efficient.  CoH, well one day i’ll spec Holy and figure out why its popular.  Must be the smart healing angle.

So make sure you use your PoM.  In 3.1 put it up there with your PW:S and Penance (Disc) or Flash and Renew (Holy) and get good value out of this nifty spell.

Posted in Priest

Moowall is now a level 46 Prot Warrior, still leveling on rested xp only (plus BoA shoulders for another +10%).  He’s finished Stranglethorn Vale and has moved on to Tanaris.  Prot wars are ideally suited to the classic Wow leveling experience where there is a lot of “kill 10 mobs and return” type quests.  Why are they so good?  Strong mitigation allows them to just stand there and smash whatever comes their way.

Case in point is the kill 40 odd pirates in Tanaris quests.  The foes, I admit, are about 1-2 levels less than Moowall currently, but geez it was smashing time.  I just run him into the compound and pull a mob or two.  At about 10% health they run away and get a friend or two.  Moowall just bandages or waits for the nearly dead guy to get his friends and before long there are 4-6 guys getting smashed and getting their friends.  Before long they run out off nearby friends and Moowall finishes them off and repeats the same maneuver somewhere else.  In this way he can chain kill 8-12 mobs in short order.  Ranged mobs/casters might require a bit of maneuvering, but it t’was fun.  Now if only I had Warbringer …

He is also still able to tank 2-3 mobs at about 2-3 levels above him.  Having recently completed The Dunemaul Compound where the the ogres are levels 48 and 49 Moowall had no trouble killing three at once (although he did have to bandage after).  The main issue he has is hitting the mobs due to the level difference and +hit gear is quite hard to find at these relatively low levels.  However this is more of an annoyance than something fatal.

He’s also picked up Focused Rage so his ‘rotaton’ has changed slightly.  Thunderclap is mainly just used as a debuff now, although it can still be useful for catching those fleeing mobs on low health.  Revenge/Heroic Strike (glyphed) is still a mainstay, damage-wise, but now Shield Slam is coming to the fore.  More multi mob tanking means more threat and the reduced rage cost from Focused Rage means Shield Slams pretty much on cool down, which are hitting for around 7-750 a pop now.

So leveling a prot warrior is still going very smoothly.  The main speed humps are the profession quests (cooking/first aid), having to travel to Silvermoon City to train jewel crafting from time to time, and making sure I mine a fair bit to maintain my professions.  Even at the accelerated rate at which he’s leveling skilling up mining and jewelry crafting is going pretty smoothly.

Posted in Cooking, First aid, Glyphs, Jewelcrafting, Mining, Warrior

From noob to expert, dispensing advice, in just a few weeks   Turkelife can dance!

The secret?  Very simple really.  Zoom your camera right out.  Nope further, further, oh maxed?  Try this:

/console cameraDistanceMax 40

That’s the magic command to learn how to dance.  I went from this to dancing all the way in one week on this simple diet.  With your camera zoomed right out you can easily see where the current green goo flashes are and guess where to stand for the next one.

An added bonus is that it seems to minimise some of the ‘lag’ that occurs when there are too many things happening on screen at once (i.e. lowered frame rate or rendering stutters).  I would have thought my graphic card was going to have a fit zooming right out, but I guess because it renders everything in less detail, it actually seems to mostly render better.

Zooming right out also helps with the lava waves in Obsidian Sanctum (no more frantic mouse looking to figure out which side its coming from).  And with the crazy chaos when fighting Noth.  My display used to hit 10fps in Noth with all the AoE everything happening.  Now it doesn’t miss a beat.

A couple of other tips for dancing:

• Target yourself at the start and use some preemptive spells (PW:S, PoM) before you start dancing.  They might save you if you make a small error.
• Until you get the hang of it don’t try and heal other people, not even instant casts.  Leave that to better dancers

Bonus tips for the fight:

• When Heigan teleports back to the floor don’t stop dancing immediately.  There is often one more green goo flash (I died to this at the end of the very last phase 2 )
• Remove the disease ASAP, it hurts a lot.

Gobble gobble.

PS If anyone figures out how to undo this /console command without deleting your config.wtf let me know.
‘/console cameraMaxDistance 10′ and similar don’t work.

Posted in Blogging

From noob to expert, dispensing advice, in just a few weeks   Turkelife can dance!

The secret?  Very simple really.  Zoom your camera right out.  Nope further, further, oh maxed?  Try this:

/console cameraDistanceMax 40

That’s the magic command to learn how to dance.  I went from this to dancing all the way in one week on this simple diet.  With your camera zoomed right out you can easily see where the current green goo flashes are and guess where to stand for the next one.

An added bonus is that it seems to minimise some of the ‘lag’ that occurs when there are too many things happening on screen at once (i.e. lowered frame rate or rendering stutters).  I would have thought my graphic card was going to have a fit zooming right out, but I guess because it renders everything in less detail, it actually seems to mostly render better.

Zooming right out also helps with the lava waves in Obsidian Sanctum (no more frantic mouse looking to figure out which side its coming from).  And with the crazy chaos when fighting Noth.  My display used to hit 10fps in Noth with all the AoE everything happening.  Now it doesn’t miss a beat.

A couple of other tips for dancing:

• Target yourself at the start and use some preemptive spells (PW:S, PoM) before you start dancing.  They might save you if you make a small error.
• Until you get the hang of it don’t try and heal other people, not even instant casts.  Leave that to better dancers

Bonus tips for the fight:

• When Heigan teleports back to the floor don’t stop dancing immediately.  There is often one more green goo flash (I died to this at the end of the very last phase 2 )
• Remove the disease ASAP, it hurts a lot.

Gobble gobble.

PS If anyone figures out how to undo this /console command without deleting your config.wtf let me know.
‘/console cameraMaxDistance 10′ and similar don’t work.

Posted in Blogging

v3.1

This is a quick post to outline the changes to mana regen and some numbers on how they effect me.  I’ll refer to 3.0.8 regen as old regen and 3.1 as new regen.

Example numbers from Turkelife are (3.0.8) Outside 5 second rule mana regen (OS5SR) = 686.  IS5SR regen is based only on the Meditation talent.  This is 30% regen inside 5 second rule (IS5SR) in the old system and 50% in the new system.  I’m ignoring MP5 on gear, which will continue to work the same.  I’m also ignoring the changes for Rapture and Holy Concentration in these equations (see bottom).

Old formula is: IS5SR regen + OS5SR regen = (OS5SR x time IS5SR x IS5SR regen) + (OS5SR x (1 - time IS5SR))
New formula (including regen nerf) is: (OS5SR x 0.6 x time IS5SR x IS5SR regen) + (OS5SR x 0.6 x (1 - time IS5SR))

Three scenarios
Scenario one - At rest
0% IS5SR
Old regen = 686 MP5
New regen = (OS5SR x 0.6 x time IS5SR x IS5SR regen) + (OS5SR x 0.6 x (1 - time IS5SR)) = (686 x 0.6 x 0 x 0.3) + (686 x 0.6 x (1 - 0)) = 412 MP5

So outside of combat Turkelife will have 686 - 412 = 274 less MP5! Or 60% of her previous MP5

Scenario two - Flat out
100% IS5SR
Old regen = (OS5SR x time IS5SR x IS5SR regen) + (OS5SR x (1 - time IS5SR)) = (686 x 1 x 0.3) + (686 x (1 - 1)) = 206 MP5
New regen = (686 x 0.6 x 1 x 0.5) + (686 x 0.6 x (1-1)) = 206 MP5

Inside full-time combat Turkelife will have 206 - 206 = 0 less MP5 (i.e. no change)

Scenario three - Average combat
80% IS5SR
Old regen = (OS5SR x time IS5SR x IS5SR regen) + (OS5SR x (1 - time IS5SR)) = (686 x 0.8 x 0.3) + (686 x (1 - 0.8)) = 165 + 137 = 302 MP5
New regen = (686 x 0.6 x 0.8 x 0.5) + (686 x 0.6 x (1 - 0.8)) = 165 + 82 = 247 MP5

In a normal combat with some periods OS5SR Turkelife will have 302 - 247 = 55 less MP5.  This is about 82% of her previous MP5.

Rapture
Base on my estimates of the old numbers for Rapture my gut feeling is that the mana return/saving on PW:S will be about the same under the new Rapture, but we will lose the benefits equivalent to about 15% mana saving on Flash Heal and Greater Heal and about 35% on Penance (plus the free mana from Divine Aegis procs).

Overall
A pretty decent nerf, however Disc mana regen is currently over-powered.  The question is will this balance us or go too far?  Also how long before Blizzard just standardise mana regen to IS5SR only?

Posted in Priest

v3.1

This is a quick post to outline the changes to mana regen and some numbers on how they effect me.  I’ll refer to 3.0.8 regen as old regen and 3.1 as new regen.

Example numbers from Turkelife are (3.0.8) Outside 5 second rule mana regen (OS5SR) = 686.  IS5SR regen is based only on the Meditation talent.  This is 30% regen inside 5 second rule (IS5SR) in the old system and 50% in the new system.  I’m ignoring MP5 on gear, which will continue to work the same.  I’m also ignoring the changes for Rapture and Holy Concentration in these equations (see bottom).

Old formula is: IS5SR regen + OS5SR regen = (OS5SR x time IS5SR x IS5SR regen) + (OS5SR x (1 - time IS5SR))
New formula (including regen nerf) is: (OS5SR x 0.6 x time IS5SR x IS5SR regen) + (OS5SR x 0.6 x (1 - time IS5SR))

Three scenarios
Scenario one - At rest
0% IS5SR
Old regen = 686 MP5
New regen = (OS5SR x 0.6 x time IS5SR x IS5SR regen) + (OS5SR x 0.6 x (1 - time IS5SR)) = (686 x 0.6 x 0 x 0.3) + (686 x 0.6 x (1 - 0)) = 412 MP5

So outside of combat Turkelife will have 686 - 412 = 274 less MP5! Or 60% of her previous MP5

Scenario two - Flat out
100% IS5SR
Old regen = (OS5SR x time IS5SR x IS5SR regen) + (OS5SR x (1 - time IS5SR)) = (686 x 1 x 0.3) + (686 x (1 - 1)) = 206 MP5
New regen = (686 x 0.6 x 1 x 0.5) + (686 x 0.6 x (1-1)) = 206 MP5

Inside full-time combat Turkelife will have 206 - 206 = 0 less MP5 (i.e. no change)

Scenario three - Average combat
80% IS5SR
Old regen = (OS5SR x time IS5SR x IS5SR regen) + (OS5SR x (1 - time IS5SR)) = (686 x 0.8 x 0.3) + (686 x (1 - 0.8)) = 165 + 137 = 302 MP5
New regen = (686 x 0.6 x 0.8 x 0.5) + (686 x 0.6 x (1 - 0.8)) = 165 + 82 = 247 MP5

In a normal combat with some periods OS5SR Turkelife will have 302 - 247 = 55 less MP5.  This is about 82% of her previous MP5.

Rapture
Base on my estimates of the old numbers for Rapture my gut feeling is that the mana return/saving on PW:S will be about the same under the new Rapture, but we will lose the benefits equivalent to about 15% mana saving on Flash Heal and Greater Heal and about 35% on Penance (plus the free mana from Divine Aegis procs).

Overall
A pretty decent nerf, however Disc mana regen is currently over-powered.  The question is will this balance us or go too far?  Also how long before Blizzard just standardise mana regen to IS5SR only?

Posted in Priest

v3.09

Ding 80 for Turkemoo!  Yay me, etc, etc.  Now on to something more serious.  Recently I posted on gearing and tips for starting your elemental shaman on heroics.  This post is about the next strata, i.e. moving from heroics on to raiding.  Its aimed at those that are already 80 and who are doing heroics and need a target of what is good for them gear-wise.

Most of the gear below is close to best in slot until 25 man raiding.  So much so that, other than as a source of Emblems of Heroism (EoH), elemental shaman can pretty much skip VoA, OS and Naxx in 10’s format.  This gear list will carry you through the first two-thirds of raiding that exists pre-3.1.

This gear list is based on LootRank, which in turn is based on Binkenstein’s work.

Items

• Head - Hat of Wintery Doom - Bought from the AH for about 300gp you should have bought this and equiped it the instant you became level 80. Gem it with a Veiled Monarch Topaz and a Chaotic Skyflare Diamond.  Be aware that this meta gem requires two blue gems to activate.  Enchant it with an Arcanum of Burning Mysteries.
• Neck - Encircling Burnished Gold Chains - Purchased for 25 EoH.
• Shoulder - Dark Runic Mantle - Can be bought off the AH for about 60-120g at time of writing.  Another gear slot you can fill as soon as you hit 80.  Put a blue gem into this to help activate your meta gem.  I’d suggest Vivid Forest Emerald.  The socket bonus (+4 spirit) is useless to us.  Enchant it with Lesser Inscription of the Storm unless you really love farming Hodir rep and can get the greater version.
• Back - Deathchill Cloak - Bought from the AH for about 600gp. Another slot you can fill straight off at 80.  You will be wearing this cloak for a long time to come.  Enchant it with Greater Speed when you can afford it.
• Chest - Ebonweave Robe - Purchased off the AH for about 1100gp this superior robe will last you a long time.  Enchant it with Super Stats.
• Wrist - This is an interesting slot to fill.  Both the Limb Regeneration Bracers and Savage Wound Wrap drop in heroic Drak’Tharon Keep.  Between the wrist and legs slots (below) you will be doing a few runs of H DK, which is one of the easier heroics.  Enchant with Superior Spell Power.
• Hands - Ebonweave Gloves - Best-in-slot until the end of 25 man raiding.  Costs about 600gp when bought off the AH.  Enchant with Precision.
• Waist - Plush Sash of Guzbah - This awesome belt costs 40 EoH and comes with a yellow gem slot.  The slot bonus is +4 hit so put a Rigid Autumn’s Glow (+16 hit) into it for a whopping +53 hit rating off one item.  This is pretty much best in slot pre-Uldar.  Make sure you add an Eternal Belt Buckle to this and socket a blue gem (Vivid Forest Emerald) in it.
• Legs - Leggings of the Winged Serpent - This drops in H DK also.  Enchant with Azure Spellthread.
• Feet - There is a fair few options for what to wear on your feets.  I’ll be aiming for either Revenant’s Treads (leatherworking pattern requiring 10 Hvy Borean Leather, 10 Eternal Water, 1 Frost Orb) or the Sandals of Crimson Fury (Exalted Wyrmrest).  I’m leaning towards the sandals because it has a blue gem slot to help me match my metagem requirement of 2 blues gems.  Put a Vivid Forest Emerald into it.  Enchant with Tuskarr’s Vitality.
• Fingers 1 - Band of Guile - Drops from heroic Culling of Strathholme.  I seem to run this instance a fair bit so after H DK this would be the next instance to be “farming”.
• Fingers 2 - Annhylde’s Ring - Almost as good as the Band of Guile this ring drops in heroic Utgarde Keep.
• Trinket 1 - The Egg of Mortal Essence can be bought for 40 EoH.  If your lucky you can get its sister, Embrace of the Spider to go with it to really haste it up.
• Trinket 2 - Mark of The War Prisoner - This is a great trinket for the huge 73 hit it a carries.  It drops in heroic Violet Hold, which can be one of the tricker heroics to do.  If you can’t get a decent group to do it with, and have surplus emblems, you could get the Sundial of the Exiled for 40 EoH.  The sundial is a low priority for spending your emblems on with so many other items needing emblems.  Also at this point in your gearing priority number one is getting to at least 295 hit rating.  This will hit cap you for raid bosses if you have a shadow priest in your raid.  If not you’ll be needing 368 for the hit cap.
• Main hand - Flameheart Spell Scalpel - This is easy to get at Kirin Tor revered.  A Titansteel Guardian is an even better, but significantly more expensive option.  Enchant with Exceptional Spellpower.
• Off-hand - I really wanted to carry a shield on my elementalist, but options are very limited .  There are no good options until Naxx 10 and even if you get the Aegis of Damnation off Maexxna, it still isn’t as good as the Ward of the Violet Citadel, which you can buy for 25 EoH.  The ward is pretty close to best in slot pre-Uldar.
• Totem - Totem of the Elemental Plane - Oh a totem upgrade!  This one costs you 15 EoH.  Its value is arguable but at 1 proc per 45s its worth about 10/45 * 196 = 44 haste rating or about 1% haste.  This is a low priority upgrade.  Due to the laughable options for totems this is almost best in slot.  Only Totem of Hex from heroic Patchwerk is better.

I’ll update this post later, but currently the only hard stat goal im working towards its the 295/368 hit rating cap for raid bosses.  Be aware that the gear above carries about 420 hit rating, which is more than you need.  This will give you some options for gearing once you reach the hit cap.

You will notice that once you reach the hit cap your gearing requirements change quite dramatically.  For reference here is the same LootRank for hit capped players.

Enjoy.

Posted in Shaman

v3.09

Ding 80 for Turkemoo!  Yay me, etc, etc.  Now on to something more serious.  Recently I posted on gearing and tips for starting your elemental shaman on heroics.  This post is about the next strata, i.e. moving from heroics on to raiding.  Its aimed at those that are already 80 and who are doing heroics and need a target of what is good for them gear-wise.

Most of the gear below is close to best in slot until 25 man raiding.  So much so that, other than as a source of Emblems of Heroism (EoH), elemental shaman can pretty much skip VoA, OS and Naxx in 10’s format.  This gear list will carry you through the first two-thirds of raiding that exists pre-3.1.

This gear list is based on LootRank, which in turn is based on Binkenstein’s work.

Items

• Head - Hat of Wintery Doom - Bought from the AH for about 300gp you should have bought this and equiped it the instant you became level 80. Gem it with a Veiled Monarch Topaz and a Chaotic Skyflare Diamond.  Be aware that this meta gem requires two blue gems to activate.  Enchant it with an Arcanum of Burning Mysteries.
• Neck - Encircling Burnished Gold Chains - Purchased for 25 EoH.
• Shoulder - Dark Runic Mantle - Can be bought off the AH for about 60-120g at time of writing.  Another gear slot you can fill as soon as you hit 80.  Put a blue gem into this to help activate your meta gem.  I’d suggest Vivid Forest Emerald.  The socket bonus (+4 spirit) is useless to us.  Enchant it with Lesser Inscription of the Storm unless you really love farming Hodir rep and can get the greater version.
• Back - Deathchill Cloak - Bought from the AH for about 600gp. Another slot you can fill straight off at 80.  You will be wearing this cloak for a long time to come.  Enchant it with Greater Speed when you can afford it.
• Chest - Ebonweave Robe - Purchased off the AH for about 1100gp this superior robe will last you a long time.  Enchant it with Super Stats.
• Wrist - This is an interesting slot to fill.  Both the Limb Regeneration Bracers and Savage Wound Wrap drop in heroic Drak’Tharon Keep.  Between the wrist and legs slots (below) you will be doing a few runs of H DK, which is one of the easier heroics.  Enchant with Superior Spell Power.
• Hands - Ebonweave Gloves - Best-in-slot until the end of 25 man raiding.  Costs about 600gp when bought off the AH.  Enchant with Precision.
• Waist - Plush Sash of Guzbah - This awesome belt costs 40 EoH and comes with a yellow gem slot.  The slot bonus is +4 hit so put a Rigid Autumn’s Glow (+16 hit) into it for a whopping +53 hit rating off one item.  This is pretty much best in slot pre-Uldar.  Make sure you add an Eternal Belt Buckle to this and socket a blue gem (Vivid Forest Emerald) in it.
• Legs - Leggings of the Winged Serpent - This drops in H DK also.  Enchant with Azure Spellthread.
• Feet - There is a fair few options for what to wear on your feets.  I’ll be aiming for either Revenant’s Treads (leatherworking pattern requiring 10 Hvy Borean Leather, 10 Eternal Water, 1 Frost Orb) or the Sandals of Crimson Fury (Exalted Wyrmrest).  I’m leaning towards the sandals because it has a blue gem slot to help me match my metagem requirement of 2 blues gems.  Put a Vivid Forest Emerald into it.  Enchant with Tuskarr’s Vitality.
• Fingers 1 - Band of Guile - Drops from heroic Culling of Strathholme.  I seem to run this instance a fair bit so after H DK this would be the next instance to be “farming”.
• Fingers 2 - Annhylde’s Ring - Almost as good as the Band of Guile this ring drops in heroic Utgarde Keep.
• Trinket 1 - The Egg of Mortal Essence can be bought for 40 EoH.  If your lucky you can get its sister, Embrace of the Spider to go with it to really haste it up.
• Trinket 2 - Mark of The War Prisoner - This is a great trinket for the huge 73 hit it a carries.  It drops in heroic Violet Hold, which can be one of the tricker heroics to do.  If you can’t get a decent group to do it with, and have surplus emblems, you could get the Sundial of the Exiled for 40 EoH.  The sundial is a low priority for spending your emblems on with so many other items needing emblems.  Also at this point in your gearing priority number one is getting to at least 295 hit rating.  This will hit cap you for raid bosses if you have a shadow priest in your raid.  If not you’ll be needing 368 for the hit cap.
• Main hand - Flameheart Spell Scalpel - This is easy to get at Kirin Tor revered.  A Titansteel Guardian is an even better, but significantly more expensive option.  Enchant with Exceptional Spellpower.
• Off-hand - I really wanted to carry a shield on my elementalist, but options are very limited .  There are no good options until Naxx 10 and even if you get the Aegis of Damnation off Maexxna, it still isn’t as good as the Ward of the Violet Citadel, which you can buy for 25 EoH.  The ward is pretty close to best in slot pre-Uldar.
• Totem - Totem of the Elemental Plane - Oh a totem upgrade!  This one costs you 15 EoH.  Its value is arguable but at 1 proc per 45s its worth about 10/45 * 196 = 44 haste rating or about 1% haste.  This is a low priority upgrade.  Due to the laughable options for totems this is almost best in slot.  Only Totem of Hex from heroic Patchwerk is better.

I’ll update this post later, but currently the only hard stat goal im working towards its the 295/368 hit rating cap for raid bosses.  Be aware that the gear above carries about 420 hit rating, which is more than you need.  This will give you some options for gearing once you reach the hit cap.

You will notice that once you reach the hit cap your gearing requirements change quite dramatically.  For reference here is the same LootRank for hit capped players.

Enjoy.

Posted in Shaman

v3.1

There is discordant chatter about the revised hymns for priests in 3.1.  In case you don’t read any other WoW related material here are the hymns in tune (copy+paste from Matticus - hope he’s got them right):

Divine Hymn redesigned: You recite a Holy hymn, summoning the power of the Divine to assist you in your time of need. Heals 3 nearby lowest-health friendly party or raid targets for 4960-5208 every 2 seconds for 8 seconds, and increases healing done to them by 15% for 8 seconds. Maximum of 12 heals. The Priest must channel to maintain the spell. Cooldown increased to 6 minutes, up from 5.

Hymn of Hope redesigned: You recite a Holy hymn, restoring hope to those in despair. Restores 3% mana to 3 nearby low mana friendly party or raid targets every 2 seconds for 8 seconds, and temporarily increases their total maximum mana by 20% for 8 seconds. After the effect expires, the mana is lost. Maximum of 12 mana restorations. The Priest must channel to maintain the spell. Cooldown increased to 6 minutes, up from 5.

The general melody of discussion, regarding these changes, seems to be the blues.  Why bother? We hate channelling, etc.

Personally I agree with what HolyDueg commented on Matticus’ post.  No priest stacking will not be mandatory.  Yes these are good changes but not earth shattering.

Lets have a look at the spells…

Hymn of Hope

The current Hymn of Hope is pretty average.  Many priests don’t use it.  It’s channelled, its pretty weak, and it prevents you healing.  I use the current Hymn of Hope in two circumstances.

Firstly when clearing trash I sometimes have trouble finding people to heal, so to help trash go faster I use this to return some small amount of mana to those that use it, hopefully reducing downtime.  This often occurs when there is only a mob or two of a trash pull left.

Secondly for some bosses who have a quiet period (e.g. Noth before phase 1 restarts) I sometimes use it then.  Or for bosses who ramp up over time (e.g. Gothik) I use it about one minute into the fight when I can afford the 8 seconds of not healing.

Notice I never use it as part of my shadowfiend/mana pot mana-return cycle. As the other posters above pointed out, you can’t usually afford to use it then unless completely out of options and without mana.  At which point your desperate anyway.  The trick is to use it at any point people have used some mana and you can afford the 8 seconds.

So far i’m planning on using the new version exactly the same as I currently do.  Especially for the boss fights 3.1 is just making a weak spell better.  It restores quite a bit more mana, but to fewer targets.  If this affected Turkelife during a raid it would return about: 23,000 (raid mana pool) x 1.2 (+20%) x 0.03 (3%) x 4 (4 ticks) = 3313 mana.

Another thing is the potential new Glyph of Hymn of Hope.  I have no idea if this glyph is in or out of 3.1, or if its a minor or major glyph, but lets be optimistic and assume its in and its a minor glyph.

Glyph of Hymn of Hope (new) - Your Hymn of hope provides 3 times the normal amount of mana per time, but its duration is 50% shorter.

This now makes Hymn of Hope a 4 second channel and it returns 50% more mana (23,000 (raid mana pool) x 1.2 (+20%) x 0.03 (3%) x 2 (2 ticks) X 3 = 4968 mana).  4 seconds not healing for almost 5k mana return, I like it.  Unfortunately even if the glyph is in sure they’ll make it a major glyph

Divine Hymn

The current Divine Hymn is useless (I think).  I’ve wanted to use it but the reduced damage component appears to out-weight the other benefits in most situations.  I currently use this hymn from time-to-time to make a pretty music symbol appear above raiders when I get bored…

The new one is, interesting exciting.  A 8 second channel for healing three raiders for 20k+ each (!) and increasing healing on them by 15%.  Ok, so its an 8 second channel, but whats not to like about this spell?  It heals a base of 60k plus whatever spell power co-efficient it has.  7,500+ healing per second seems pretty good to me.  This is approaching twice the HPS of any other healing spell!  Sure its channelled so you might lose half this but it is still a huge heal on a long timer and a huge buff over the old version.

If I make a few assumptions, like that it heals the target with the greatest health loss (percent or absolute I don’t care, yet) and that it re-targets each tick, this will be Circle of Healing on steroids.

I’ll be using this for sure.

Change isn’t always bad fellow bloggers

Posted in Priest