Archive for February, 2010
February 28th, 2010
Axes, maces, lightning, fire, frost, and wolves, and best of all, Windfury. It can mean only one thing: enhancement. Rich Maloy lives it and loves it. His main spec is enhance. His off-spec is enhance. He blogs about the life and times of enhance at Big Hit Box and pens the enhance side of Totem Talk.
A dead DPS does no DPS. It’s as simple as that. Whether in a raid, an arena, or out soloing and leveling, staying alive is priority number one. This is as true for enhancement shamans as it is for any class. Thankfully as enhancement we have a few more options than most DPS classes including our saving-throw talent: Maelstrom Weapon.
I consider it an absolutely essential duty to toss out MW4/5 heals in a damage-intensive environment, especially if the fight is new progression for your guild or you’re in a tough match in PvP. I remember working on Tidewalker in Serpentshrine Cavern, I’d throw MW5-Healing Waves on the tank constantly. The damage was so intense on our main tanks and their health so spiky that at 4 procs of Maelstrom Weapon he’d be at full health then a split second later when I had 5 procs he was dangerously close to dying. My Healing Waves rarely over-healed when we learned that fight it appears my memory is failing me as MW did not exist when SSC was progression content. I do distinctly recall tossing out Lesser Healing Waves to help top off the tank when the MT healers were Watery Graved.
Tossing heals on the main tank in the Tidewalker fight was the exception, for the most part when using MW for healing it’s a matter of keeping yourself alive. Read on to live to fight another phase.
Continue reading Totem Talk: Save yourself
Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk
Totem Talk: Save yourself originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
February 28th, 2010
The recent Twitter dev chat confirmed what is fast becoming a tradition: We will be getting a new Caverns of Time instance with the upcoming expansion. It’s certainly not something I have much trouble with. The Caverns of Time are an excellent tool for looking back and understanding old pieces of the story that brought us to the current world as it is. Unfortunately, the devs were not willing to drop any hints as to the exact nature of the new instance, but we can, of course, make our own guesses.
The original questioner suggests War of the Ancients as a possible destination. In a way, that might be an interesting battle. It would, if nothing else, give us some insight into the character of Malfurion Stormrage, who promises to be a key figure in the expansion. That said, Rhonin, Broxigar, and Krasus have already traveled back in time to deal with the War of the Ancients, and you’d have to think that if you keep shoveling more time travelers back there, something’s bound to give.
Continue reading New Caverns of Time instance coming in Cataclysm
Filed under: News items, Cataclysm
New Caverns of Time instance coming in Cataclysm originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
February 27th, 2010
Here at WoW.com we’re on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we ought to follow? Just leave us a comment and you may see it here tomorrow!
If you’re interested in PvP battlegrounds, you’re probably aware that patch 3.3.3 is turning the system on its head — completely removing Marks of Honor as well as increasing honor gains across the board. Have a bank full of the things? Well, we’ve got good news for you — at present on the PTR you can convert them to honor at the rate of 2000 honor per mark. Combine that with the recent explanation of Wintergrasp mechanics and what have you got? A lot of excitement about PvP battlegrounds. Here’s what’s making the rounds of the blogosphere.
- Cynwise thinks now’s the time to be running battlegrounds and collecting Marks of Honor.
- Holypaladin.net talks about Wintergrasp imbalance.
- Birdfall discusses seeing the opposite faction as people.
- Getting back to the basics, Spiceytuna explains resilience and gives talks frost mage PvP 101.
- Already a PvP expert? Over on the official forums Nethaera is looking for Warsong Gultch advice to be included in the next World of Warcraft magazine.
Filed under: PvP, The Daily Quest
The Daily Quest: PvP edition originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
February 27th, 2010
Ready Check is a column focusing on successful raiding for the serious raider. Hardcore or casual, Vault of Archavon or Icecrown Citadel, everyone can get in on the action and down some bosses.
As much as I’d like to think I’m an extremely dedicated and reliable guild member and as much as I live and breathe tanking in the end-game content, even I am forced to admit that I sometimes do that thing raid leaders dread most. I flake out. It’s not like I’m lounging around my man cave, sipping an incredibly powerful beverage, and just spontaneously decide “I’m not going to raid tonight. Screw those 24 (or 9) other people.” It’s always a real life thing for me: I run late at work, I’m getting married, my cat’s on fire. (I’ve missed three raids because my cats have caught themselves on fire. Once is funny, twice is a concern, but I don’t think anyone believed me the third time.)
But no matter how real and valid my reason for missing a raid, the fact still remains that I’m letting down a group of people. (Or, I’m letting down a group of friends if that’s the flavor guild you’re running.) Even worse, let’s say I’m the main tank. Many raiding guilds use a deference-minded loot system: “main” specs get the loot for their role first, before people who only fill that role on occasion.
So, not only is the raid missing a warm body, they’re missing a warm body who is usually the most practiced at their role and the best geared for that role. It’s a conundrum for every raid leader. You don’t want to tell your Class A folks that if they miss a single raid, they’ll find themselves benched. But at the same time, you’re really out a whole lot of power by missing those folks.
This problem is especially palpable for tanks and healers. That’s not because DPS isn’t important (it absolutely is), but because the tank and healer corp for raids tend to be much smaller. If you’re missing one healer out of your 10 man raid, you’re suddenly down 33% of your healing power. (Best case scenario might be you’re putting the two-healer stress on someone, but that’s still not great.)
The only way you can mitigate your raid loss due to missing tanks and healers is to plan ahead. Let’s take a look behind the cut and talk about how you can handle this issue.
Continue reading Ready Check: Raid understudies and how to grow them
Filed under: Ready Check (Raiding)
Ready Check: Raid understudies and how to grow them originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
February 26th, 2010
Here at WoW.com we’re on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we ought to follow? Just leave us a comment and you may see it here tomorrow!
Today we’re talking healers. You know healers, don’t you? The players who tend to stand in the back of a group and do simply terrible DPS? Damage meters aside, if you’re not a healer, keeping your healer happy should rank high on yout to-do list, because who else out there is going to pull you from the brink of death over and over again? So while the non-healers in the audience are out buying candy and flowers for the healer in your life, the healers in the audience are going to sit back and look at some recent thoughts on healing from around the net.
- Blessing of Kings discusses healer hubris.
- Holypaladin.net talks about the Flash of Light build for holdydins.
- Tree Bark Jacket covers healing for Sindragosa — some of it’s druid-specfic, but some of it will be useful to anyone attempting Sindragosa.
- Wugan on Flow discusses healing for Professor Putricide for resto shamans. (If you’re attempting the Professor and having trouble, you may be interested in reading Raid Rx and Ready Check on the same subject.)
- The Physician’s Log covers solo-healing Sarh +3 as a paladin.
- Holyform offers some tips for discipline priests on Festergut.
Filed under: The Daily Quest
The Daily Quest: It’s all about the heals originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
February 26th, 2010
Last week in Totem Talk: Restoration 101 we talked a bit about the basics of being a healing minded shaman. Continuing in that vein today I would like to focus on the restoration tree’s talents as well as glyphs. We will cover more specifics on other aspects of restoration in the weeks to come.
The restoration talent tree is very strong and versatile, filled with a lot of the talents focused on augmenting your existing ability to heal. It is also very lean in the fact that it does not have many talents that you need to absolutely avoid, and they all have a very distinct role in the shaman toolbox. These talents also provide you with key spells essential to your success as a healer as well as our most iconic spells. While we may not have as many healing spells as a holy priest, our toolbox is still very versatile and it does the job quite well.
Continue reading Totem Talk: Restoration talents and glyphs
Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk
Totem Talk: Restoration talents and glyphs originally appeared on WoW.com on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
February 25th, 2010
Here at WoW.com we’re on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we ought to follow? Just leave us a comment and you may see it here tomorrow!
If you weren’t aware that patch 3.3.3 hit the PTRs this past week, there’s a very reasonable chance that you live under a rock. (Though, if you’re reading this, it must be a rock with exceptional internet access.) Now that we’ve had a few days to think over the cornucopia of news that’s been thrust upon us, let’s look out upon the vast internets before us and see what they think of the latest patch.
- Birdfall talks about the novelties of 3.3.3.
- Slice and Dice analyzes the rogue changes.
- And Forever a Noob brings us more rogue discussion.
- Frostheim talks about the buff coming to beast mastery.
- At Big Hit Box, Imonaboat talks about 3.3.3 for frost-spec death knights.
- Gypsy at Mischief, Magic, and Rocket Science suggests that 3.3.3 is time for mages to break out the pitchforks.
Filed under: The Daily Quest
The Daily Quest: What do you think of patch 3.3.3? originally appeared on WoW.com on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
February 25th, 2010
I know, I know… I said I prefer to write about our 25-man exploits, but this is just too good. The Red Devils put together an “elite” 10-man strike force and headed into ICC. We one shot everything on our way to Putricide. Ok, we wiped a few times on the old Professor, but we DID IT! We downed Putricide in 10-man!
Now, there are a lot of guilds for which this would be no big deal. But, for us, this was epic – congratulations, Red Devils!
The guilty party members are as follows (will each of you please stand as your name is called?):
Aniraa (holy priest and Guild Leader)
Azurstorm (nasty, stinky ol’ rogue – did I mention he’s a rogue?)
Bohb (warlock and sacrificial gnome)
Damac (she-man extraorinaire and dps leader)
Deathbringyr (deathknight tank and abom master)
Jellopuddin (deathknight tank and Putricide distracter)
Nyyx (tree-of-life druid and rezzer of the dead)
Seabrat (scrubby old SV hunter)
Snyped (even scrubbier MM hunter, though not so old)
Unkldiesel (dps warrior of smiting power)
February 25th, 2010
WoW.com has in its possession five copies of the new Stormrage novel by Richard A. Knaak. And guess what? We’re giving them all away to you!
The contest is open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, and Canada (excluding Quebec), and everyone who enters must be 18 or older. To enter, leave a comment on this post before 11:59pm ET Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010. Please be sure to use a real email that you check often to enter, so we can contact you should you be a winner. You may enter only once and five winners will be selected randomly. Each winner will receive one copy of the book, valued at $16.50 US. Click here to read the official contest rules.
If you don’t win a book via our giveaway, you can pickup a copy of Stormrage over at Amazon. Be sure to check out our review of the book, and stay tuned for our interview with author Richard Knaak!
Filed under: Contests
WoW.com Giveaway: Stormrage by Richard A. Knaak originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
February 24th, 2010
Good grief, it’s been nearly two months since my last post! Unfortunately, that’s because it’s taken us that long to progress any further in ICC-25. Oh, we’ve done a little better in our 10-mans, but I prefer to write about the Red Devils exploits in 25-man instances.
In 10-mans, we’ve gotten Putricide as low as 10% and spent a few hours wiping on Blood Queen Latifah, but we can pretty regularly make it that far. In the 25-man version however… ohhh damn … 25-man has been slow, slow, slow! That changed for us last night, when we marched in and one-shot everything up to, and including, Festergut!
After a short time-out for the official guild picture with Uncle Fester, we distributed the loot and raced over to see Rotface.
I was pretty jazzed, and was even planning on playing tag with the Professor, but Rotface wasn’t quite the pushover for us that his brother Fester had been. And once our momentum was broken, it took us quite a few tries before we managed to put Rotface on the floor.
We did finally succeed, but it took up all our time for the night and we had to say goodbye without looking in on the Professor. We do plan to get back to him tonight, but Wednesdays often seem to present us with attendance problems.
