Definitely a Day of the Dead

Was up a little bit late last night making use of the final few moments of Call to Arms: Arathi Basin on the Horde Rogue. I haven't laughed and ganked that hard in ages.

It began on the Exodar server when Pro finally hit level 36. Decided to try some Warsong Gulch. Her gear is quite horrible yet I hoped the level might be enough to not get insta-gibbed. Boy was I wrong. Rogues were eating my cookies left and right.

I had heard in Aenara's guild that Rogues were the scourge of the lower brackets and that's sure not an understatement. They mentioned mutilate so I spec'd that on Unpleasant yet it didn't seem that OP. Dragonsblitz and Gorestep showed me the error of my ways... it was Subtlety that was insanity. I thought the problem was not having Flare yet it would be useless against Shadowstep. While they could see my traps at 32 they couldn't disarm them. Yet it didn't help me much.

There is incredible synergy at very low levels in the Subtley tree:

• Shadowstep (25 yd range, Instant) Causes you to step through the shadows and appear behind an enemy target. Your next Ambush or Garrote delivered within 10 sec will deal 30% additional damage, and your movement speed is increased by 70% for 3 sec.
• Master of Subtlety (Passive) Attacks made while stealthed and for 6 seconds after breaking stealth cause an additional 10% damage.
• Sinister Calling (Passive) Increases your total Agility by 25% and increases the percentage damage bonus of Backstab and Hemorrhage by an additional 25%.
• Improved Ambush (Rank 3) Increases the critical strike chance of your Ambush ability by 60% and its damage by 15%.
• Waylay (Rank 2) Your Ambush and Backstab hits have a 100% chance to unbalance a target, increasing the time between their melee and ranged attacks by 20%, and reducing movement speed by 50% for 8 sec.
• Opportunity (Rank 3) Increases the damage dealt with your Backstab, Mutilate, Garrote and Ambush abilities by 30%.
• Hemorrhage (35 Energy, Melee Range, Instant, Requires Melee Weapon) An instant strike that deals 110% weapon damage (159.5% if a dagger is equipped) and causes the target to take 30% additional damage from bleed effects for 1 min. Awards 1 combo point.
• Ambush (60 Energy, Melee Range, Instant, Requires Melee Weapon, Requires Stealth) Ambush the target, causing 190% weapon damage plus (330 * 1.9) to the target (274.93% plus (330 * 2.75) if a dagger is equipped). Must be stealthed and behind the target. Awards 2 combo points.

It's a lot to take in yet it plays incredibly well. And it's all available to a Rogue at 29. In fact most of it is available through the 20s, with Hemorrhage and Waylay or Opportunity coming at the end. In the 30s it's ridiculous.

Core talents and abilities aside, one Prime, one Major, and one Minor glyph slot become available at level 25. And there are some really sweet ones available to compliment the devastation:

• Glyph of Hemorrhage (Prime Glyph, Requires Level 29) Your Hemorrhage ability also causes the target to bleed, dealing 40% of the direct strike's damage over 24 sec.
• Glyph of Backstab (Prime Glyph, Requires Level 25) Your Backstab critical strikes grant you 5 energy.
• Glyph of Eviscerate (Prime Glyph, Requires Level 25) Increases the critical strike chance of Eviscerate by 10%.
• Glyph of Ambush (Major Glyph, Item Level 25) Increases the range on Ambush by 5 yards.
• Glyph of Gouge (Major Glyph, Requires Level 25) Your Gouge ability no longer requires that the target be facing you.
• Glyph of Vanish (Major Glyph, Requires Level 25) Increases the duration of your Vanish effect by 2 sec.
• Glyph of Sprint (Major Glyph, Requires Level 25) Increases the movement speed of your Sprint ability by an additional 30%.
• Glyph of Blurred Speed (Minor Glyph, Requires Level 25) Enables you to walk on water while your Sprint ability is active.

So many great choices! Hemorrhage would be useful against other rogues and druids, keeping them out of stealth. Ambush and Backstab are expensive moves so Backstab, when landing, would get you a little extra for another. Eviscerate would help ensure a big finisher (if needed, heh). Ambush would make Ambushing a mounted target is even easier. Since Blind isn't available until 34, Gouge could fill the gap. Vanish would give you more breathing room to escape with. Sprint would help you escape while Blurred Speed would make escape in Arathi Basin easier. Wow! Naturally I logged out and went back to Azjol-Nerub. After respecing for 53s, I threw Unpleasant out there to see what was what.

It went as well as all the whining indicated. It was astonishing the damage that was unleashed. Unfortunately I was half-way through 29, so after a win and a loss, I leveled into the 30 bracket. It is always rough to be at the bottom of the bracket plus other players often jeer at the flotsam dragging the team down, but I was on a rush and had to see what could be done. I managed to deal out more death than I expected. Unfortunately it's easy for the higher-level enemies to see through stealth so I had to be at the top of my game. The kills I got were a real testament to skill and timing. The best one I got was at level 31 where I one shot a 39 Warlock that was mounting up. She had over 1600 health which didn't seem to even be there. For a kill like that to be possible with an eight level disparity definitely says there something out of wack. Yet I understand it must be rough on Blizzard to balance a class through their level progression. Glad I got all this down for posterity as I'm sure something will get hot fixed.

While the rogue is fierce, it's not all a cake walk. All the usual requirements are there… catch someone unaware with as few friends around as possible while your cooldowns are all ready and theirs are down. And as at all the lower brackets the BoA gear can make an incredible difference. Currently the worst targets are the DoT casters and the mail-wearers. If you don't one-shot them things get dicey. While Shadow Priests are painful, 4.x Warlocks are devastating. Bane of Doom can now be cast on players. It lasts FOREVER (one minute, heh) and does a TON of damage. A quick reacting paladin that survives will usually Lay on Hands then try to slam a Hammer of Justice on you. Those two have been the most troublesome survivors of a failed one-shot for me.

As realization has dawned on everyone the play-style has suffered. Rogues summarily ignore flag groups and swim out mid-field looking for targets. So there were a few games that ended 0-0 because no one could survive the onslaught since no one would support the flag carrier. Lot of people leaving games in a huff but whatever. I am there to gank not help the team. *snicker* I am just one of the sharks looking for chum.

Went out to Hammerfall to grab Defiler's Leather Boots. Since the Inherited Insignia of the Alliance doesn't translate from Alliance to Horde I had to grab an Insignia of the Horde for 55 honor points. Still need to decide on glyphs then it's time to see what the fields of battle are like today.

Wow WoW

Head is still spinning from all the changes. Aenara is doing insane Moonkin damage and pulling aggro off instance tanks with ease, single-target and on packs. Didn't end up reforging anything as I was right on with hit. Mana was a slight problem. Will see how things go in raid tonight if everyone is ready. Could get Grid running so I refused to try out my healing spec in a pug. Really like the flaura spawn from Swiftmend though. *smile*

Faerune has fared pretty well. Too much talking and reading to get the tanking configured (SO MANY CDs NOW!) yet Frost DPS is looking pretty amazing. The built-in Power Auras made reacting to Rime and Killing Machine procs very easy. It's sad that KM doesn't affect Howling Blast anymore, but DPS was fine. Pulled instance aggro a number of times so not looking forward to tanking.

Biggest problem with loading Professions, namely Inscription and Jewel Crafting. I suppose everyone needs those right now so it's taking a toll on the servers. Sure is frustrating. Takes a few minutes for the categories and cuts/glyphs to load, especially in Dalaran. My gouging plan didn't really work with Glyphs. I didn't realize that they work like spells now... once you learn one, you never need it again! Did sell a bunch of Druid and Rogue ones at inflated prices. But it wasn't worth the time and materials. I'm going to have to make a bunch for my toons, and they bumped up the cost of each glyph from 1 to 3 Ink of the Seas.

Still have so much to figure out not even sure where to begin. I really need Grid to work, so I'll prolly start there. Then maybe Favor? Scheme? Feraline? Sloosh? *sigh*

PTR, Round 1

The maintenance was taking too long so I decided to play around some on the PTR since it was up. Last week I wasn't able to transfer Faerune because the service was busy. Instead I transferred one of the pre-made Death Knights so I could see what tanking was like. Ugh.

There's still a problem with trade skills so I wasn't able to gem any of the "ZOMG FREE EPICS!" gear they give you. Nor did I have any glyphs. So it wasn't going to be the best test. Yet it was fun to look at the new talents and see that I now have even more defensive cool-downs, namely Bone Shield and Dancing Rune Weapon. BS has always been BS because it gets eaten so fast, but might as well take it now since it's in the tree. DNR was always novel but impracticable yet now it adds 20% parry while active. Good times.

Was really strange being in Blood Presence, which now adds the stamina, armor, and damage reduction along with threat increase that Frost used to. Started creating my usual macros, binding Rune Strike to my four main strikes. Thankfully I tried this out on Coren Direbrew first. None of my strikes were landing. Looking closer, it turns out that RS no longer function like Heroic Stike and landing "on next swing." It's now it's one strike and eater of a GCD. *sigh*

Trade Chat was filled with whining, trolls, and garbage—more plentiful as there's only one PvE server. People claimed that the LFG tool didn't work but I got one readily as a tank. Zoned into Drak'Tharon keep and immediately apologized, explaining that this was my first tanking experience with the new talents.

It's immediately apparent that AoE threat has been nerfed. While it's nice that Death and Decay only uses on Unholy rune, it doesn't do much. Pestilence has also been nerfed, doing only 50% damage to the targets it spreads diseases too. Not having any addons, I don't know for sure but it felt like Icy Touch isn't doing as much threat as before.

It went pretty well considered. The warlock with us still went wild with AoE. He pulled the whole room before Trollgore and I could do nothing to save him. Yet I was able to hold Trollgore with no problem when I pulled him. The healer and two of the DPS DC'd as we killed King Dred. The remaining ret pally, Dyley, was game to continue. Was dicey at a few spots but Death Strike and Rune Tap kept me going. Felt accomplished to two-man the rest of the instance.

I'm still unsure if the Death Strike change is a nerf, the whole "healing you for 30% of the damage you have sustained during the preceding 5 sec (minimum of at least 10% of your maximum health)." When I was getting hammered it did nearly 20%. Yet without meters or parsing addons, I can't be sure. It doesn't mention that having one or both diseases is required for the healing so it may be a buff overall.

Anyway. Will have to get Faerune transfered for some real testing. Having to work in another key for Rune Stike is rather annoying. And people are going to have to re-learn restraint when DPSing groups. Hopefully the live servers are back and I can get my last day of Direbrews in.

Warlock Should be Destro

I've kept the Horde Lock Affliction for too long… it simply doesn't have killing power. Caught an Orc Shaman doing pretty well in AV so I grabbed his spec. Some of it I don't understand. Taking Improved Health Funnel and Shadowburn, for instance. Will go over it later.

PvP Rogue

Finally saw a Subtlety Rogue owning shit in a BG so I got his spec. Watched him solo a paladin then start working on a Hunter—pretty impressive.

Back Into the Thick of It

So Martini's GM informed me last night that he needs me back in Enhancement since our regular Death Knight population has dwindled to zero. It always annoys me how he prioritizes melee DPS over the casters. Currently we don't have a Demonology Warlock for Demonic Pact, yet he hasn't asked our sole regular Lock to change from Destruction.

At the moment I can't make a compelling argument to retain my favored spec since another Elemental Shaman joined. He appears to know what he's doing plus attends regularly. Though I am doing more DPS, it's only a gear thing. Plus my Enhancement offset is nearly as good as my Elemental. So it looks like I'll be at Rogue and DK elbows again with Spirit Wolves howling.

It's been months since I've dusted off the melee gear or even thought about the Enhancement rotation… errr, priority system. Figured I needed to visit Elitist Jerks for some review. I'd noticed an Enhancement Shaman in the Druid's guild, Jinnä, do some impressive DPS that involved a lot more Fire Nova than I remembered mine ever showing.

Instead of heading directly to the Think Tank summary I started in the Class Mechanics forum where I found an interesting thread, [Enhancement] BiS gear and set-up discussion (3.3 and onward). The first thing that startled me was seeing this ability priority order:

1. Maelstrom Weapon x 5 stacks - Lightning Bolt
2. Flame Shock
3. Stormstrike if debuff not active
4. Lightning Shield if not active
5. Fire Elemental
6. Magma Totem if not active
7. Spirit Wolves
8. Shamanistic Rage
9. Earthshock
10. Stormstrike
11. Lava Lash
12. Fire Nova
13. Magma Totem
14. Lightning Shield

Good God. I have to state for the record that this kind of shit is what makes me hate Enhancement. Look at all of these fucking abilities to monitor—busy, busy, busy! Further, they have to be kept readily accessible on your bars since you have to maximize your GCD use. And naturally all this has to be done while maintaining raid awareness so you are not dying from standing in the proverbial fire. *sigh*

Whining aside, I was very surprised to see Flame Shock at the number two spot. Then I noticed that the gear list included the "caster" trinket (Bizuri's Totem of Shattered Ice). I'd heard of this relic being used by healers but for some reason it surprised me to see it on melee. Haste seems to be the sweet stat on all upper-geared classes regardless of role or talent specialization anymore. While I really like have my attack power break 11k with Totem of the Avalanche, I suppose I could give this a shot.

The talent build on this thread was also a little disconcerting. Glyph of Feral Spirit and Glyph of Stormstrike were familiar. I'd laughed the Glyph of Flame Shock out of Elemental use many patches ago so seeing it here made me laugh out loud. Jinnä is using Glyph of Fire Nova so I'm going to have to keep an eye on this choice. I may try to sneak in Glyph of Lava Lash or Glyph of Windfury Weapon for old time's sake.

As for the actual talents, I see extreme pains were taken at avoiding any mana conservation. Namely Elemental Focus, Shamanistic Focus, and Improved Stormstrike were not chosen. This is where I see reality clashing with theory. While Shamanistic Rage makes filling up a mana bar trivial at my gear level, it does still require something to smack for seven to ten seconds. Boss encounters don't always allow that. Yet the above priority list will be making damn sure I'm using my mana.

So while I agree with all three points in Improved Shields, I don't feel that a human dealing with latency can really make use of one point in Reverberation. Where to put this stray point? Elemental Focus and Shamanistic Focus are too specific. I considered Ancestral Knowledge for extra mana, Elemental Warding for slight damage reduction, or Totemic Focus since I'm always dropping totems. But Initially I'm going with Improved Stormstrike because it will have the most consistent use and provides the most generalized return.

I would like to peruse the standard summary in the Think Tank, but I'm currently getting a "502 Bad Gateway" error trying to access it. That's fine. It's going to take me an hour just to respec and figure out my bag space. Carrying around three entire sets of gear is difficult for a pack-rat like me. *snicker* Probably going to have to re-gem everything once I get Rawr to review things. *sigh*

Shadow Power

It's been almost a month since I encountered the Twin Terrors Shix-Feathermoon and Carverll-Feathermoon in Warsong Gulch. The two of them kept half the alliance idiots at the graveyard while the Horde ran flags with rapidity. They were nothing short of amazing. Poor Martini had to endure being farmed for a rez or two while figuring this menace out.

Discipline is such a strong Arena/BG spec I had lost touch with Shadow. Namely, I didn't know Dispersion is so OP now. With the glyph, they get 1/3 of their mana back and reduce damage by 90% every minute. Then there's Psychic Horror, an instant CC from huge range with a nice after-effect for melee opponents. Top it all off with the newly huge ranged Mind Flay. Shadow is definitely a force to be reckoned with.

While that's probably surmountable in 2v2s, these two worked very well together, bringing suffering to my random group. Looking over their gear it was all readily accessible emblem armor and PvE weapons/trinkets. Their specs weren't the same so I'll have to look into the variations. Actually found a very tight (20/0/51) on Amyth-Darkspear that interests me. It seems really strange not to see Shadow Power in there but it sorta makes sense when the three evil DoTs are not enhanced by it. Mind Flay is channeled, Mind Blast has a cast time and a cooldown, and Shadow Word: Death has huge cooldown with conditional back-last—all bad things.

It all looks possible given my current means. Yet I've decided to level my bank/auctioneer Faerawr instead of good old Sloosh. Sloosh already has some gear and all, but I want Engineering. There's no way I'm dropping Sloosh's Tailoring or Enchanting. I'll also keep Sloosh healing in PvE, whereas Faerawr will be PvP Disc and PvP Shadow.

Funny. I remember being so disappointed when Blizzard took stun procs out of the Shadow tree. Doesn't seem to matter anymore though. Heh. See what happens!

Death Knight OP? Why Yes!

Spent entirely too much time on the Death Knight. Decided I wasn't in any rush to look around so I read through the quests and enjoyed the content. It was really fun starting out at 55 with a full set of green equipment along with 270 in First Aid. Got to steal a horse, duel others, and all manner of nefarious deeds. The final quest where the Lich King's thrall is broken was very fun yet4 I enjoyed flying around on the bone drake the most. I mean… you get to eat people for health and mana!

It was difficult figuring what talent tree to take. With all the chatter in General Chat it seemed that Blood is PvE, Frost is for Tanking, and Unholy is for PvP. Finally went over to the Wiki and went with a Zephire's Deep Unholy DPS build (16/0/55) since I figured I'd do PvP first. The only diversion I made was picking up Summon Gargoyle because that sounded way too cool.

The mechanics of the class are very interesting. I never understood what the runes meant until actually seeing them in action. It's also not very clear what each type is for initially but you get a better feel for it as you us the attacks. All of the numbers seem so small individually so it takes a while to see how they work in tandem. It's certainly interesting to have a tanking class that can't use a shield and isn't mana-based yet has abilities that are both melee-based and mana-based.

PvP ended up being wild. The DK started quests give you the basic PvP trinket and all of the final blues are superior to the starter Outlands questing, so right out of the box you're ready to gib. Unfortunately the Horde absolutely suck AV in our battle group so I only tried two games before giving up. Two native class abilities, Death Grip and Ice Chains, made Warsong Gulch a living hell. The game I got in had nineteen Death Knights and one Alliance shaman. After almost two hours we did win, but it was exhausting. I expect lots of outrage and QQing from the other classes so it was fun to get some killing in before the nerf bat starts swinging

Priest Review

The next time I'm forced to spec Sloosh healing I'm going to give this this 10/51/0 spec a shot. I hate not having Inner Focus and Meditation, but the new Surge of Light and Guardian Spirit sound pretty fun; haven't been that deep in the Holy Tree forever. Divine Providence seems focused on spells I wouldn't use as much, so I might trade it for Serendipity and two points in Test of Faith. Twin Disciplines is of dubious worth but it's better than the nerfed Unbreakable Will.

If I ever manage to get back to PvP I'm going to start with this 56/5/0 spec. It's a really big departure from the routine to skip on Mental Strength and Power Infusion. I don't like the PI change so I went for Improved Divine Spirit. The way it reads, I also liked Enlightenment over Rapture even though Disc is classically horrible at mana efficiency. Penance really didn't interest me but the last point I had wouldn't really fit anywhere else so I'll try it. Will have to watch some high rated priests for additional insight.

I'm currently raiding with a 5/0/56 spec. Having three points in Shadow Affinity is probably overkill with the built-in 30% threat reduction of shadow form, so I may be trying Psychic Horror or Improved Shadow form when I can. It's frustrating having a Raid Spec and PvP spec so close together because I would trying PvP Shadow. Yet if I have to respec anyway, might as well stay with Disc.

Priestly Talents Refresh

Kevanassa found my old Priest spec notes and got riled up, contesting a few of my assertions. And it's true. I've needed to revisit it for a while. For instance: Mindflay. The novely of being Disc with Mindflay has nearly worn off. Mainly Sloosh would use it while waiting for Fear's 30-second cooldown eon. If a melee was on a fleeing Hennesy she would slow them down. With Hamstring/Crippling/Wing Clip and/or resists, it's not terribly effective. In fact, lately she would resort to Mind Control as it's amusing and effective to break their momentum, throw them off the bridge or move them away from their team mate.

So yeah. It's time to retire my Mindflay Disc spec (48/2/11) so I reviewed some other specs. Started at WoWWiki.

Disc PvP Healer (47/14/0)
A build with increased survivability. Strong buffs, including Pain Suppression and Power Infusion. Mana Burn is the strongest spell to use against opponents if you get caught in a 1v1 situation. A .5 second Mass Dispel, as well as Improved Power Word: Shield, Reflective Shield, and Healing Focus make this a very effective healing build in PvP.

Divine Fury makes no sense to me. In PvP Flash Heals are best for non-instant healing. 1.5 seconds of breathing room is hard to get as it is, but 2.5 seconds is way too long. Inspiration is also of dubious value since the significant boost on cloth is nearly as meaningless as it would be for plate. It might help Feral druids yet that's three points with a pretty narrow use. Those three points should have gone to Blessed Recovery.

How would I fix this build? Give up both DF and Inspiration along with Holy Nova in favor of five points in Mental Agility (Disc is so mana intensive, let's keep those Shields, Prayers of Mending, and Renew cheap!) and a full five points in Silent Resolve. The remaining three points are a tough call. Absolution is nice to make those dispels even cheaper along with lightening the heavy cost off Mass Dispel. The three points would also be useful in Spell Warding to trim off 6% of all spell damage. Personally I would put the final three points in Blackout. Getting a 3 second stun for spamming 23 mana rank 1 Shadow Word: Pain is godly.

The only lingering problem is Enlightenment. On the surface, simultaneously boosting Stamina, Intelligence, and Spirit sounds wondrous. Yet I've read commentary that's convinced me a 5% stat gain for five points is a nominal benefit at best, even with 2.4's changes to Spirit. It would be wise to take two of those points to max Blackout. As above, the remaining three points could go either into Absolution or Spell Warding. With the focus on Disc PvP healing, Absolution makes most sense.

PvP "Face Melter" (17/0/44)
This build is a pure PvP build. The build is only slightly viable for raiding, but in the new arena system, as well as normal PvP, it will truly "melt faces."

Beautiful. I hate losing Shadow Power's +15% crit, but this spec makes perfect sense to me. It's a pity Sloosh never seems to fill a DPS slot.

Common Disc PvP Healer (livelong build) (41/20/0)
This build seems to be the best current build for PvP priest healers as it allows you to take plenty of hits while still doing your job. This build is also the most popular among the 25th and up top rated priests in 2v2 3v3 and 5v5!

Once again a slant towards the big heals with Divine Fury and Improved Healing. While it would be wonderful to have Blessed Recovery, this much Holy makes little sense to me in BGs and even less in Arenas. These points belong back over in Disc for Improved Power Word: Shield and Reflective Shields.

I think the spec would make sense for main healing in a 5v5, yet I see it in 2v2. The 9th 2v2 rated team in my battle group and on my server is actually a Priest and a Warlock. The Priest uses a variant of the livelong build above. But they are Dwarf and Gnome while Hennesy and Sloosh are both Human. Perception doesn't compete with Stoneform and Escape Artist.

Another Priest a few slots down was pretty close to livelong yet he worked in Blessed Recovery and, of all things, Improved Inner Fire; at least he had the shields. Kevanassa mentioned playing with IIF and felt the same way I do—useless. Maybe in the buffed armor of full Vengeful (which he does have) I'd consider it, but I'm still dubious.

My Dwarf Priest is still 59 and it might be worthwhile getting him to 70 to let Sloosh retire from PVP. I would miss the lovely Spirit bonus, but it would be worth losing Feedback and Perception for Stoneform and Chastise while retaining Desperate Prayer. Alliances sucks in BGs so badly I'm not sure I'd have the patience to re-farm all the Vindicator gear. It might work if I kept him in the 59 bracket for a while though. It's less honor but there are a enough Alliance twinks for wins which would mean more tokens/honor in the long run.

Anyway. I'm going to ask Kev for some feedback around this Disc spec (51/5/5). Want to hold onto Blackout and the initial points in Holy. I like the shields and I'm going for Improved Spirit since it helps me and Hennesy (so long as it doesn't get dispelled, heh). In the interim, I have two green gems to replace and a few enchants to get done.