World of Warcraft

[Fenryng]

With my usual slow slog, I have managed to get my frost mage up to level 49. I have been having a fun time leveling him; because of the increasing options and powers that being in the frost tree is allowing him.

I spent some time in Tanaris, which fluctuated with my interest, depending upon where in the zone I was at any time.

I enjoyed the scrub and cactus area in the southwest section of the zone, where I was required to kill walking bipedal plants. I was not a big fan of doing that, but the area was nice. I need to get back there when I am higher level, because there is a quest there that I really want to do. The quest involves escorting one of the massive snapping turtles the width of the zone to the ocean, where his mate is. I may have been able to do it, except that it is a timed quest, which I am not real fond of. So I will go back and escort Tooga when I am capable of obliterating everything in my path.

I also liked the Caverns of Time for exploring. It was fun walking down in the caverns, seeing what was down there. And at some point, I am going to have to go back and kill a couple of the dragons that lurk outside near the path leading to the entrance.

The beach was the last place that I enjoyed going, as there were pirates to slay of every make and model. Plus, the ocean is preferable to the deep desert areas, which were boring.

I was NOT fond of the bug-infested areas that are in the zone. Those damn things aggro almost as bad as the verdammt murlocs. Note to self – find some other zone to level in besides Silithus.

I was trying to spend some time getting some levels in the Blasted Lands, but for the level that I was, the only quests that I could do involved endlessly killing some of the local creatures in the area, which is also boring. There were various undead, warlocks, trolls, and whatnot in the area, but they were all so much higher than I was that I couldn’t kill them, even if it was one on one with planning. So, I did a little research, and decided that I was going to frequent the Feralas zone, followed by Azshara.

Feralas is slightly lower than what my current level is, and I will not level as fast as I would by doing other quests. However, this will allow me to enjoy the exploration part of things, and Feralas is one of the prettier zones that I have been in. Which is the reason why I am going to Azshara afterwards; according to WoWWiki, the zone is very pretty, being in perpetual fall colors. It also is a good zone to go to when I finish Feralas with regards to the level that I expect to be at. And once I finish
in Azshara, I will go back to the Blasted Lands, and see what I can accomplish besides killing the local wildlife.

I did go to the Hinterlands briefly to explore, but that zone was too much like others that I have already done. There are a couple of troll spell casters on top of a temple that I need to pay back for a couple of deaths.

[Stego]

Yes, Andy, avoid Silithus.


That's just wisdom.

[PhelanArcetus]

I like Silithus. Kinda.

But we've already established that I'm crazy.

Actually I just don't really like any of the 55+ vanilla zones, but when I had to hit one of them because my ret pally just couldn't handle Hellfire at 58, I went to Silithus. Felt more comfortable there for some reason.

Of course, my DK went straight into Hellfire at 58 and did fine. Chalk that up to a combination of being OP and having all blues, as opposed to pretty much all greens.

Playstyles are playstyles. Only a problem when a playstyle results in actual bad play. I mean, yeah, that ret paladin I taught how to play? He used to be Prot, and when we first went to Kara with him, his reaction time to anything was incredibly bad. Why? As nearly as I can tell, because he was watching his cursor as he moved it around to the keys he needed. Meaning he didn't see what was going on. That is an example of when being a clicker is bad. I don't know if he still clicks, but his reactions times are far better, and that's what counts.

Now, off to the kitchen to find some easy dinner.

[TerraPrime]

Ugh, I'm a nub on WWS. Where do you find out about totem dropping? I looked under Buffs and I didn't see it?

And no worries about picking up on where we're doing poorly. How else are we supposed to learn? Keep it coming.

[GoN]

Terra,

If you click on the name of any of the three shaman in the raid you'll go to their page that lists their abilities, buffs and debuffs, and breakdowns. Under the name on the first page it lists all their "pets". If you click on Jollyrancher for example you'll get Jollyrancher & Mana Tide Totem & Mana Totem 8. Same for Pamisu, and Thunderorc, although Thunderorc's also includes Wrath of Air Totem. If you click on wrath of air totem itself you'll find that there are two instances of it listed. No other totems are listed for any of the three shaman for the entire report.

If thunderorc is elemental then he should definitely be dropping Totem of Wrath and Wrath of Air. Strength of Earth and Windfury would be replaced, in theory, by DK's Horn of Winter and Improved Icy Talons, iirc.

In adddition to the very important raid buffs you are missing out on, they don't seem to be helping out by dropping things like disease cleansing totem (nice on Heigan for instance) or nature resistance totem (also nice on Heigan and various trash).

Here's an example of my shaman's parse from part of naxx, [url="http://wowwebstats.com/iwsh3uhzddeag?a=x422b15"]for instance[/url].

[TerraPrime]

Ah, thanks so much.

Will they list the totem if they die mid-way through fight? I specifically remembered telling the shamans to drop Disease cleansing on Heigan, and yet, none of them did. I'm going to have STRONG WORDS with them...

Jollyrancher is a douche. I have him on perma-mute on vent and /ignore.

The other shamans I will work with and give them pointers on totems. I figure when we run with more than 2, we should coordinate better. I was hoping that the two of them will figure it out, like I do with the other locks (I always check the other lock's spec and ask if they will use CoE if we don't have boomkin), but I suppose we need to jump start that process.


ETA

I just got chewed a new one by the guildies because they swear that the shamans were dropping totems. They insist that the WWS is wrong. *shrugs*

[GoN]

Yeah, it lists all instances of the totems, even if they are destroyed during the fight. In the best of worlds, they should work out amongst themselves who is dropping what, but it may come down to totem assignments.

Too bad about having to have one of them on perma-mute. I know that doesn't make for a fun raid. Hopefully you can deal with the other two a little better.

Edit for your edit- It seems a bit strange to me, at best, that the WWS would list Mana Totems and an instance of Earthbind but nothing else. YMMV.

[TerraPrime]

[quote name='Ghost of Nymeria' post='1723251' date='Mar 17 2009, 22.23']Edit for your edit- It seems a bit strange to me, at best, that the WWS would list Mana Totems and an instance of Earthbind but nothing else. YMMV.[/quote]

I quite agree. I don't know why the combatlog will skip over 4 different totems and record the other 3, or something. I have no explanations. I trust the WWS (and your interpretation of the data) more than people's memory and certainty that "so-and-so is a great shaman so they'll never forget to drop totems." But no, the few people didn't want to believe me. I offered to link to your WWS so they can see what it looks like when the totems are down, and they didn't care.

*shrugs*

Not sure this is an issue to make a row over with. The only way it will ever convince them is if they do drop one next raid, and my log shows it, then maybe I can convince them that that one time 2 weeks ago they forgot to drop the totems. I dunno. But to what end? So they get annoyed at me for pointing out that they missed something? I don't want to come across as the guild mother who nags at people to do this and that, or to appear like I'm trying to play everyone's characters. I'd rather not spend hours on WWS to figure out what went wrong, tbh. I'd rather they go read the EJ site and figure out what spec they need, instead of me having to relay the info to them.

Bah. I just want to grind my enchanting. :P

[GoN]

[quote]I don't want to come across as the guild mother who nags at people to do this and that, or to appear like I'm trying to play everyone's characters. I'd rather not spend hours on WWS to figure out what went wrong, tbh. I'd rather they go read the EJ site and figure out what spec they need, instead of me having to relay the info to them.[/quote]

I feel ya, man. That is exactly one of the many reasons I quit my old guild/raid. I don't really feel like holding anyone's hand any more at this stage in the game. There is so much information out there for people who want it. One person shouldn't have to theory craft for an entire guild. Best of luck.

[RaceBannon42]

[quote name='Ghost of Nymeria' post='1723304' date='Mar 17 2009, 23.02']I feel ya, man. That is exactly why I quit my old guild/raid. I don't really feel like holding anyone's hand any more at this stage in the game. There is so much information out there for people who want it. One person shouldn't have to theory craft for an entire guild. Best of luck.[/quote]
Ness I'm gonna dual spec resto. I just spam CH right?

[Guest thebadlady]

Is there a decent TC site other than EJ? I simply and honestly do not understand what they say there. Its not phrased in a way I understand or maybe I am just too stupid to get it. Its not that I haven't tried either. I think EJ assumes a level of game mechanics that I just do not have.

I just want simple. As in, fire mages hit cap is 39.5%. Your spell rotation should be 4, 3, 3, 3, 2, 4. Etc. No math, no epeen waving, just simple normally phrased advice.

[GoN]

Steve :P

[quote]I just want simple. As in, fire mages hit cap is 39.5%. Your spell rotation should be 4, 3, 3, 3, 2, 4. Etc. No math, no epeen waving, just simple normally phrased advice.[/quote]

I'm not sure another good source for mages. Shadowpriests have something exactly like that at www.shadowpriest.com. They do have a mage forum, but I can't vouch for it being as good as their shadow priest stuff. It looks a bit underused, now that I glance at it.

EJ can be a pain in the balls to read. I'll be honest and admit that I don't udnerstand all the math on there, but I can usually glean the gist of the information I am looking for.

Is the [url="http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t40824-mage_pve_dps_wotlk/"]Mage PVE DPS WoTLK[/url] think tank article not close to what you are looking for?

[Guest thebadlady]

hnmmmm, my soul is yours forever.

How did you find that? Steve found a resto one like it, and I spent hours reading the mage threads and didn't find this. Maybe I just need to lrn2search?

Mandy noted that I really have become somewhat retarded lately. Maybe I will have to stick to mafia wars until I find my brains again. :/

[GoN]

I think EJ would benefit from cross posting the think tank articles in the class forums, rather than off in a little forum all their own, tbh. :P

[Guest thebadlady]

OK, this is the beendall of my EJ hate. The rotation hasn't changed in a year, good. But hitcap probably has. So I read the article and comments trying to find ONE SIMPLE NUMBER that says, you are hit capped bitch.

[quote]Spell Hit Rating 26.23199272 => 1%
Spell Crit Rating 45.90598679 => 1%
Spell Haste Rating 32.78998947 => 1%[/quote]

and???

what does => mean other than international sign for circumsized penis? do they *mean* to say 26.so on is equal to less than 1% (of something)? [this is what I mean when I say I think they assume people who read their site knows what (of something) is.] This is learning the rest of the wow language, but without context to help you get it.

[quote]Spell hit rating is the best stat you can get, by a large margin. All spell casts use a 2 roll system, which means they must hit before they can crit or partial resist. Additionally, only 26.2 hit rating is required to add 1% hit chance with spells. Because of this, spell hit rating is better than any other stat. The base chance for any spell to resist, before talents, is 83% against a boss level mob (+3 levels). Any talent that describes itself as "reducing the opponents chance to resist" increases your chance to hit. Beyond that, gear can be used to improve your hit chance to a maximum of 100%. Once you reach the 100% hit mark, further hit rating is completely useless and you are considered "capped". With rare exceptions, gearing below the hit cap will almost assuredly result in a loss of potential dps.[/quote]

explosion. of. brain.

This is what I got from that paragraph. Get spell hit. Lots of it. Spells double down like funky vegas players. 26.2 = 1% hit???? 83% against a boss of +3 levels, so does that mean hit cap needs to be 17%/445.4 before you stop getting too many resists and you are capped, which means adding more doesn't help you, not that its the max [i]possible[/i]?? So 100% hit is NOT 100%. Its a different % that is either what I guessed at up there, or I am utterly wrong and its a number that everyone just 'knows'.

[quote]spell hit rating (to cap) > spell damage > spell crit rating > spell haste rating > intellect > spell penetration[/quote]

haaateeesssss. Just make a list without alligators <>.

[quote]For fire mages, keeping up the Improved Scorch debuff is key to maintaining good dps. It is advantageous to have every fire mage assist in applying and maintaining the debuff, as it is in everyone's interest to do maximum dps. If at any time the debuff drops it will have to be applied twice over again, cutting into fireball time and reducing the damage of every magic user in the raid. The scorch debuff is so powerful that it is advantageous to apply on almost every mob. As a rule of thumb, anything that's going to last at least 10 seconds should be scorched first. It's also a good idea to scorch down the tail end of a mob's life (when fireballs will not reach the target before it dies), ending with a fire blast, so that the most damage possible is affected by Molten Fury. For the rest of the time dpsing, spamming 8 fireballs or frostfire bolts for every 1 scorch gives the maximum number of fireball hits while still maintaining the debuff. However, use common sense: if a boss ability may prevent you from casting at certain times, increase the number of scorches you cast to avoid the risk of losing the stack. 5 fireballs for every 1 scorch is a good rule for encounters with interruptions.[/quote]

English!! With what I already knew! Still love it!


[quote]List of Specs[/quote]

No links to the actual spec. How to verify?


Yeah, so thats my brain on EJ. The shammie one is great - it straight out tells you (with links) to best OH, enchants, gems, etc. A bit weak on the rotation, but you don't really have a rotation with healing (other than the oh fucks), unless I am doing it all wrong and I shouldn't ever have an oh fuck. Shammie wise, I noticed that my numbers looked a million times better after I spent 2K gold doing what EJ said to do, so I know they are right and thats what frustrates me - they are right and I dont get it. :P

[Shryke]

[quote name='Stego' post='1722967' date='Mar 17 2009, 19.59']No, no, no, Shryke. Link your armory. You don't get off that easy.

My TPS is as good as it can possibly be. Stationary or on the move. Different playing styles are different playing styles. I don't stand in shit. I don't get caught by shit. I am normally way in front of anyone in the moving department. And when I am tanking, I keyboard turn.[/quote]

Keyboard turning is always slower. It's really that simple.

I mean, I'm sure you get along completely fine. Whatever works for you.

But Mandy, I figure from her posts, is new at this game. And keyboard turning is NOT a good habit to get into.

[GoN]

Heh. EJ.

Okay, I went trolling around EJ, cause I really don't know mage stuff at all, having never played one.

The first post [url="http://elitistjerks.com/f75/t38540-general_mage_discussion_information/"]here[/url] has some pretty basic information, including links to spec specific threads, and maybe examples of builds?You are right about the hit. You need 17%, 446 before talents.

[quote]Spell Hit and Raids
The hit cap for raid bosses(skull mobs) is 17%. With 17% you will have a zero chance to miss, there used to be a 1% chance to miss that you could never circumvent, but this is no longer the case. You can now achieve 100% hit rates.

Common Hit "Goals" (always rounded up)
17% - 446 Hit rating
14% - 368 Hit rating
11% - 289 Hit rating
8% - 210 Hit rating

1% of Hit is equal to 26.232 hit rating

It's pretty easy to figure out how much hit you need. Check your talents, subtract that from 17, do you have a shadow priest or balance druid providing a debuff? Subtract that. Viola! The rest is what you need from gear/gems/food.[/quote]

[quote]FB requires the most hit from gear with none from talents.
FFB is next along with Frost getting 3% hit from talents.
Arcane requires the least hit from gear getting 6% from talents.[/quote]

That mage thread makes me glad I play a shaman :P

[Guest thebadlady]

Indeed. Playing a mage is literally pressing two buttons, maybe 4 if its a weird boss and most of your effort comes before the fights when you run around and feed people and make them less stupid.

Check the shammie thread as comparason: [url="http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t24796-shaman_restoration/"]http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t24796-shaman_restoration/[/url]

totally straightforward.

I think I'd be a much better player if I fully understood this crap and didn't have to always rely on interpretation. (Which I am quite appreciative of, I'd just rather get it on my own, ya know?)

[Zadok]

I think the Mage EJ forums are a nice way to keep up with the class and the changes. I mean, when you read that clipping your 5th AM to get the buff for AB is a DPS increase that's pretty useful as its not something the average player would notice or even try during play. Same thing when it was fixed and no longer worth doing.

As long as you understand the underlying mechanics of your class you will be fine, it doesn't make you a worse player because you don't figure out every little exploit the second it hits live.

[Shryke]

Hey now, Arcane Mages may need to press as many as [b]5[/b] buttons!

Arcane Blast, Arcane Missiles, Arcane Barrage, Slow and Evocation