World of Warcraft

[TerraPrime]

Continue.

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

Not 80 yet, still 65. But I have my radioactive unicorn now, as well as - more importantly - my Blood Knight tabard. :D Thanks, Stego! :love:

I've been reading some good pally articles to get info about improving my DPS, and am already seeing improvement. Really, I need to run instances until I die in order to improve my gear, but I kinda like running around questing, doing my own thing. And of course, as ret, I don't get as many invitations as otherwise. I'm picking up more Holy talents to help with that, but I still have to go back and learn how to use them properly if I'm going to heal more than myself.

[Shryke]

You did the quest for the Epic Mount, right?

I love that last bit in Stratholme. Tons of fun.

[Dio]

[quote]I one shot it with no effort daily. Here's how:

1. Immediately grip until you hit 90.

2. Rotate normal attack and grip, without pause.

3. When the dragon takes a swipe at you, dodge, then immediately hit with the big attack, as big attack resets the dodge countdown.

That's all. Will never fail.

For phase 2:

1. Pry 12 times.

2. Attack.[/quote]


Yep, that's about how I do it, works every time. If you're having a lot of trouble during phase 1, buy some Snowfall Lager from the guy up at the Grom'arsh Crash Site. If you fail and fall off, drink one and you'll slowfall to the ground and won't die. Saved me a couple deaths trying to figure out the right rotation.

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

I did indeed. It's a huge difference doing it with an 80 warrior helping you, though. :P Honestly, most of it wasn't that bad -- the last bit inside Strat is the only instanced part of it, and the only part I was having problems with on my own. It worked out much longer but cheaper than buying outright, and it does mean that I'm also entitled to my tabard. (I don't [i]think[/i] those who buy the training/mount get that part, but I could be wrong.)

Then again, the belf quest chain is, I think, the easiest of all of them. If I had been trying for any of the others, I would have sucked it up, earned the money, and just bought the damn mount.

[Third Knight on the Left]

[quote]One thing I am going to need to figure out is some way to deal with mana issues. I have the deep Fire 0/60/11 build that gives Icy Veins. What's fun about this build is getting Hot Streak procs to get an instant Pyroblast; however, that really eats up your mana. May just be a matter of managing cooldowns: with 3 minutes on mana gem, 5 minutes on evocation and the ability to throw in a runic mana potion once per fight, if I'm smart about using this stuff then I should not go OOM, especially if I'm running with a pally who can toss me Wisdom. Or one of those classes that can now provide the Replenishment mana buff... which, in my level 80 instancing I have yet to encounter. What is that, shadow priest, ret pally and MM hunter? Moar mana plx.[/quote]

You have a lot of bloat in the fire tree. Not sure if your trying for a frostfire bolt spec or not, but if so I'd recommend you go at least 18 frost to get frost channeling. Your mana issues will be much, much less. If your going for a fireball spec then forget the frost tree and go arcane and get clearcasting, spell impact and focused magic.

[Imp]

[quote name=' Lyanna Stark']Congrats on Malygos Imp! smiley2.gif Did you really do him with shaman and pally? I read that was "impossible" due to lack of instants. I'm going in for my first try tomorrow, it's going to be interesting.[/quote]

Thanks! Yup was certainly far from impossible. Everyone raid buffed had over 20k hps and could (barely) survive without heals, and healing in vortex is very possible without instants... although occasionally our healers would run into range issues, but that's what healthstones are for! When we'd got the sparks down we just had to survive 3 vortex before phase 2.

Goodluck on your tries! :) Can be a pretty daunting fight at first.

[Mack Kilimaro]

[quote name='Third Knight on the Left' post='1613111' date='Dec 8 2008, 19.21']You have a lot of bloat in the fire tree. Not sure if your trying for a frostfire bolt spec or not, but if so I'd recommend you go at least 18 frost to get frost channeling. Your mana issues will be much, much less. If your going for a fireball spec then forget the frost tree and go arcane and get clearcasting, spell impact and focused magic.[/quote]

I have not been sold on Frostfire yet, but that's because I haven't dug in and tested the numbers for myself. I understand there are supposed to be specs out there that put insane critical damage bonuses for Frostfire, but that seems to me like it would be pretty boring to only use that spell in a rotation.

Your suggestion to try talents in the arcane tree is one that I may consider if I find that I have serious mana issues in raids. I kept with the Clearcasting even after they added in Icy Veins because I liked the free mana; however, I chose not to continue to do it like that with the Wrath talent lineup because I feel like tier 1 arcane provides basically no tangible benefit for me and that's a lot of talent points to waste.

Still, I messed around with a talent calculator and came up with a 20/51/0 by dumping points from Incineration and World in Flames from the low tiers and Fiery Payback from a high tier. I also left out Living Bomb because I have not found myself using it much. This may be because I don't really understand the benefit yet more than the spell itself being sub-par. What this nets me in arcane is the Clearcasting, Spell Impact, Focus Magic and Arcane Meditation. I took 3 points in Student of the Mind in this build but I can dump 2 points if needed, or one point for something like Living Bomb if that's something I ought to have.

One problem that I neglected to think about until now is that dropping the points in Frost loses me 3% hit with my fire spells. For all of my whining about spell hit in the last thread, you'd think I would have remembered I have Elemental Precision and I only need 367 rating without considering moonkin or shadow priests. Moreover, I only need... 79 rating to cap against dungeon bosses? Yeah... I need to get used to the new level 80 way of things still.

I think that I will stick with what I've got until I run into situations where I feel I used my mana increasing stuff intelligently and I'm still running OOM. But the arcane option is something to consider when you factor in that getting the hit cap isn't insanely difficult once you're racking up the gear at level 80.

[Kalbear]

[quote]Yep, that's about how I do it, works every time. If you're having a lot of trouble during phase 1, buy some Snowfall Lager from the guy up at the Grom'arsh Crash Site. If you fail and fall off, drink one and you'll slowfall to the ground and won't die. Saved me a couple deaths trying to figure out the right rotation.[/quote]I turn into a bird. :)

I've been able to one-shot it with my system as well, so I figure there are plenty of things that you can do; the advantage of doing it my way is that you don't have to worry about timing dodges and you'll always stab the guy in p2.

[Starkimus]

First off, thanks to everyone for their congratulations. Wife and daughter doing great! 2.5 year old comes home from the inlaws tomorrow...so we shall see how that goes. She just got potty trained, and I hope she doesnt regress..although I know this is a possibility. Heh..it would be nice to only have to change one set of diapers :) But..what comes will come.

On to WoW...

Hit 79 last night. Ran some instance...have no clue what it was, got a nice wand though that replaced my badge wand. It was a nice one..I think this was a lvl 80 instance we did..but whatever, had fun..cleared with only 1 wipe.

For questing...its freaking crazy how many quests are in each area. At this rate, I will have 3 areas pretty much untouched before hitting lvl 80. Working on quests in Zal Drak at the moment. Have not seen Shaolin, or Storm Peak, or ..whatever the other one is yet.

I just hit 410 Tailoring tonight and was looking at the stuff needed for higher levels. All I can say is...holy crapola batman! I will be spending forever to get the mats to make some of this stuff lol.

Anyway..WoW time is over until Friday. Exams Thursday, Friday. Hope to hit 80 this weekend.

Hasta all, and good WoWing to you!

Stark Out!

[Dio]

[quote name='Kalbear' post='1613262' date='Dec 8 2008, 20.11']I turn into a bird. :)

I've been able to one-shot it with my system as well, so I figure there are plenty of things that you can do; the advantage of doing it my way is that you don't have to worry about timing dodges and you'll always stab the guy in p2.[/quote]
Yeah, well, you cheat! Druids..

I got annoyed enough with it the first few times that when I found a way that worked, I stuck with it. Damn quest, I just want my 500 rep.

[Third Knight on the Left]

[quote name='Mack Kilimaro' post='1613150' date='Dec 8 2008, 18.51']I have not been sold on Frostfire yet, but that's because I haven't dug in and tested the numbers for myself. I understand there are supposed to be specs out there that put insane critical damage bonuses for Frostfire, but that seems to me like it would be pretty boring to only use that spell in a rotation.

Your suggestion to try talents in the arcane tree is one that I may consider if I find that I have serious mana issues in raids. I kept with the Clearcasting even after they added in Icy Veins because I liked the free mana; however, I chose not to continue to do it like that with the Wrath talent lineup because I feel like tier 1 arcane provides basically no tangible benefit for me and that's a lot of talent points to waste.

Still, I messed around with a talent calculator and came up with a 20/51/0 by dumping points from Incineration and World in Flames from the low tiers and Fiery Payback from a high tier. I also left out Living Bomb because I have not found myself using it much. This may be because I don't really understand the benefit yet more than the spell itself being sub-par. What this nets me in arcane is the Clearcasting, Spell Impact, Focus Magic and Arcane Meditation. I took 3 points in Student of the Mind in this build but I can dump 2 points if needed, or one point for something like Living Bomb if that's something I ought to have.

One problem that I neglected to think about until now is that dropping the points in Frost loses me 3% hit with my fire spells. For all of my whining about spell hit in the last thread, you'd think I would have remembered I have Elemental Precision and I only need 367 rating without considering moonkin or shadow priests. Moreover, I only need... 79 rating to cap against dungeon bosses? Yeah... I need to get used to the new level 80 way of things still.

I think that I will stick with what I've got until I run into situations where I feel I used my mana increasing stuff intelligently and I'm still running OOM. But the arcane option is something to consider when you factor in that getting the hit cap isn't insanely difficult once you're racking up the gear at level 80.[/quote]

The frostfire rotation is exactly the same as fireball rotation. living bomb, scorch, scorch, ffb, ffb. proc hot streak pyro keep scorch up keep living bomb up ect.

[Shryke]

Well, in interest of fun and such, I've been getting the dungeon acheivements down for my DK.

Just soloed all the Auchindoun instances. (Well Shadow Labs and Sethekk Halls, the 2 I hadn't done when leveling)

Sethekk Halls was cake.

Shadow Labs was fun, although much more tedious since there's all sorts of spots where you HAVE to clear mobs. Blackheart was fun. Turns out if there's only one of you in the party, you just attack the boss anyway, just without you controlling yourself. It also apparently doesn't count as you since the diseases I put up normally stacked with the diseases I had put up while MCed.

Murmur was tougher. I end up just suckiong it up and eating the Sonic Booms.

All in all, good fun. We'll see if I can take on Shattered Halls next.

Oh, and the worst part? I've run that place dozens of times on my lock, and Murmur never gaev me what I wanted. The drops this time? Robe of Oblivion and Greatsword of Horrid Dreams.

I almost cried.

[RaceBannon42]

Archavon is the new loot reaver. w/o the tedious trash even.
Did him last night and he dropped my T7 pants. Woot!
Also got enough badges of valor for the ring, so two upgrades.

[Lyanna Stark]

That loot thing, I think it is cursed. I happened to me on my priest constantly: all the stuff I always wanted on my hunter just dropped and dropped and dropped, while my priest seemed to sit in her PMC for ever and ever. I've been luckier in WotlK, but I have a few items that will never drop for me. Those are head, boots and offhand, plus any staff. I have gloves coming out of my arse, and think I have seen the Nexus healing mace drop 4 times. Still using my T4 headpiece as well. I will still cry when I replace it with one of the stupid gimp masks tho. Whomever thought that was a good idea must have been drunk!

We were working on Sarth +1 yesterday, which was a lot of fun. Sadly some of our DPS were just terribad, and they didn't nuke the add in the portal fast enough, plus one of our three healers was a recently respecced tree, and I am convinced he isn't doing it right. His healing is abysmal and the pally had to constantly cover for him and heal two tanks while I was stuck healing the portal people.

I don't know how druid healing rotations have changed in WotlK. It used to be 3 x LB stack on tanks, rejuvs, swiftmend, enjoy mana efficiency. I imagine it is much the same, but with some added nourish? I don't think he realises that healing means, at least in intense raid encounters, to make every GCD count.


It seems there are a lot of priest tears regarding the CoH nerf. Personally, I think they could really do with making the priest trees a bit more spiffy. Most classes got some shiny new toys to use, while priests got Guardian Spirit and a bloated holy tree (make Meditation Tier1 plx), a cool looking spell in Disc and....well, not much more really. Most people don't even know what "Guardian Spirit" is and miss the buff and just think they were really lucky.

As it will be after the patch, priests will be the least specialised of all healers, with probably the poorest regen as well. As I do love my priest anyway, and we are short on healers, I'll stay holy for sure, but I am seriously considering levelling a druid.

[GoN]

Regrowth should be added to the mix, and glyphed swiftmend is a must. Lifebloom coeffciency has been nerfed from what it was, so a dr00d can't just roll blooms and collect loots anymore. It definitely is a GCD watch.

Totally agree that holy priest tree is sickly bloated. And it seems a bit lackluster as far as shiney new toys compared to the highly more sparkly Disc. Shadow is pretty tight at the moment at least.

I found druid healing at 70 to be a bit boring, but it might be more interesting at 80. They're cake to level though, and gives you some options if you get bored with one role.

[PhelanArcetus]

My loot luck ran out, I guess. Hit Gundrak with nothing, and Pinnacle with nothing. Those are pretty much my last two heroic drop items (shoulders and sword).

I spent most of the rest of the night flying circles around Icecrown mining. Got, I think, 17 titanium ore. Sounds right for the number of skillups I ended up with, at least, and of course a metric ton of Saronite. If I can keep up that rate of titanium, I'll be able to reach 450 and provide materials for a gun in short order. Just the eternal air will be an issue, but with leveling my paladin I should start getting alchemy up so I can transmute some things.

[Tobin]

Yeah, the UT trip I had the other night had nothing anyone could use - all druid drops for a DK/Sham/Priest group.
Was still a neat place, I definitely like the artwork this expansion.


Got 73 finally about 230am, it was one of those things where I was desperate to sleep but knew I wouldn't until I got the last few percent needed.

Finally got the stupid bugged H.W.Saurfang quest done in BT and should be/hit 74 by the time I finish the other quests left out there.

The tadpole quest was adorable, I didn't want to turn them in. I was hoping to get a screenshot of me in the murloc suit with a bunch of little babies, but it didn't work, :(

[Stego]

Loot has been absurdly easy to come by in the expansion. For me, at least. I'm sure opinions will vary. My worst grind was Azjol'Nerub heroic for two weeks for the tanking trinket. And I'm sitting on 6-7 best in slot pieces with only a few raids under our belts. The only things I really want are a head upgrade so I can drop engineering and the tanking axe.

As for loot luck in BC, many of you have heard the whine of my 30+ Mechanar runs for the Jadeskull breastplate on AD, and I don't think much compares to my tanking 3/6 Sunwell with Gruul's shield.

[PhelanArcetus]

At the moment my only real frustration with farming for tanking items is just that I want to do utterly unrelated things, like level my paladin or DK. Though since I hate pugging, I might end up whining to guildmates to run the places.

However, with the much shallower loot tables of WotLK, I'm guessing it won't come to that for actual gear. For things like rare mounts, sure, but not for item upgrades. A couple more trips to my target instances should get those item drops with any luck, and then I can just run instances to get the rest of the jewelcrafting pattern drops and one more frozen orb.