mandag den 28. november 2011

4.3 This week.

4.3 This week ! 

New content to smash and changes to a lot of classes, which can be found here: Right here

However, the most interesting for my part is those which I already have covered.

a) Shaman: Riptide buff and a unique buff with Ancestral Fortitude, which will be refreshed by CH, HW, GHW, HS, HR, Riptide, UE so if you keep your Riptide running on a tank, like you would do before, you give him 15-20k extra HP.

b) Druid: WG has been nerfed by 20% which is quite a bit and it should bring druids a little down from their "über" HPs. Nonetheless, druids are still very potent healers - Best mobility while keeping an impressive throughput - Tree of Life as an "oh shit" + Tranquility is still amazingly good. And with increased mana pools you will be moving closer and closer to WOLTK Rej spam style.

c) Paladin: Biggest change - Holy Radiance, which now makes them some wannabe raid healers. Furthermore, their Judgement was changed so it doesn't give mana back pr. judgement, which I think might become an issue further down the line, but for every paladin who thought it was hard to press the button more than once every minute I guess it is a welcomed change.

d) Priests: Attonment gets usable at big bosses like Al'Akir and Ragnaros, which I think is good because I think it is a fun spec to play. Holy gets Divine Hymn buffed equal to Tranquility so it now becomes worth using, and there is some addition buffs.

I look forward to progressing through new content !

Music:

lørdag den 26. november 2011

Getting ready for Dragon Soul and 4.3

Getting ready for Dragon Soul and 4.3
There hasn't been a lot of activity on this blog for a while and that is mainly due to no content, and that I cba. to write about Mist of Pandarian and the changes which is coming. This is due to I am mainly focusing on Dragon Soul and by that I mean the joy of PTR, and the late hours that it gives you. Furthermore, since we are down to raiding 1 day a week I am trying to get ahead with my studies, and the exams which of course hits in December, and simply to attempt to get a better grade (and trying that "Not doing it in last minute" style I have been running the majority of my life).

Preparing for Dragon Soul.
Beside late night PTR and the "fun" it gives then I have been stocking up on pots, elixirs, flasks and food which didn't really take long. My shaman is standing in BiS (I do not have cloak from Alysrazor, however, I do not see that as bit for a lot of fights), my druid which is missing Shard of Woe (I feel like a baws when 24 people is forced to run BoT), Alysrazor Cloak and a Firestone and I should be good to go Rejuv spam style, and my former main, my paladin, is missing a few pieces here and there, but with almost every healer having a paladin as 1st alt and a few main paladins I don't really see it as a possibility that I will be playing that.
Nonetheless, I have found time to level a priest (Yes, I do have a priest on my old server, but since it is only 370 ilvl I simply didn't think it was worth spending 20+ 25 Euros on transfer and faction change (On a side note -Why the hell is Faction Change so damn expensive?). So I started level a priest and it dinged the 22th of November and the 25th I had one or two pieces which could be called an upgrade from ZA/ZG, and I am running around with ilvl357. I am mainly playing Disc on it while being specced into attonement which is just bonkers, honestly PW:S on the tank, Holy Fire and Smite heals for 12-25k (This is with Luck of the Draw buff, but rarely with +10% spl.) and that is almost sufficient to keep the tank alive, however, when DPS plays like retards (Which they will since I am pugging) 5 x PW:S and GHW spam is not enough, I mean there is just some mechanics you cannot heal through and as I usually say "I cannot heal stupid".
But back on track, I have stocked up on pots and so on ingame but I have also been stocking up with food since I guess my time will be Exam, WoW, Sleep more or less.
That will be all, sorry for it being a small post which didn't really say much. 



mandag den 7. november 2011

Experience from PTR, and how I see the changes to shamans in 4.3.

I have been playing around on PTR both with my shaman and druid (Yes, I got a resto druid as well – rej rej wg), but also the majority of bosses 10 normal / heroic – 25man normal / heroic (Not that I have tested all on every difficulty). So what is my experience so far? And is the QQ on forums in regards to resto shamans for 4.3 justified?
So far I think the changes to resto shamans looks rather promising, and I believe that it will be mandatory to run with a resto shaman for Ancestral Vigor on tanks (Stack the buff up before combat, and just keep a Riptide running = It will be kept up, and the buff gets refreshed / stacks with healing from other resto shamans).

Since I am mainly raiding 25man heroic I will make that the focus of my experiences:
 
Morchock: We ran with 6 healers (tried different combos 2 x hpala, 2 x hpriest 2x rdruid or 2x rshaman and I played both shaman and druid) . I started on my shaman, but since I was asked to help soaking crystals my HPs was suffering quite badly and despite Spiritwalker’s Grace (yay!). It is quite doable as a resto druid and you will spark out quite decent looking HPs + Treeform is very, very potent. However, when we tried 2 x rshaman instead of 2 x rdruid, and changed that healers were no longer soaking it was far more stable (As stable as playing with 2-300 ms can be). I want to point out a few things in regards to shamans a) Since you got a timer on stomp you can time a GHW on the tank = It is required because the boss hits like a truck, and if you can place HR smart (As in the run patch from orb to orb (ofc. Covering the lastest on your side) you will notice it becomes quite a lot easier. In the transition you are able to cast some LBs if you position yourself smart, however, if you are on soaking duty I will suggest speccing into imp. Ghost Wolf.

Yor'sahj: The fight seems a little overtuned (I have only tried as resto druid), and while ”learning” to bad comboes (red + green will rape you) and the hate for purple (You are able to cast hots before the buff ”comes” up and it is quite vital to throw out a few Rejs. before the buff is “reapplied”, however, ONLY if people got less than 4 stacks or else you will just wipe the raid so WG in that phase is a no go)
Nonethelss, I suspect that the shaman will be quite nifty if we went for a heavy mastery build.

Warlord Zon’ozz:
Bouncing isn’t really that much of a problem, however, making people move / dispelling them before they take an retarded amount of damage seems to be the biggest issue (and people not running in the same direction) in phase1. However, things changes in phase2 and the fights changes from “ladi da” to “AAAAAARRRRGH ALL COOLDOWNS NAUW!”. It seems slightly overtuned or we did a very poor job in reducing the damage taken since we only lasted roughly 90-120 seconds (That was with 2 x druids + Tranq and a shitload of cooldowns). It does look like a fun fight tbh., but all it takes is for one person being too slow to get out or a healer being trigger happy in regards to dispelling and BOOOOOOM.

Hagara: I do like the mechanics of this fight, allthough I have only done it in 10man heroic, phase 1 is pretty straight forward occasionally burst damage on the tanks, icecubes and frost damage which ranged should help soak to avoid melee dying like the small bithces they are.
Transition Storm: In one way I think it is a shame that they removed some of the lightning rods, but on the other side it was a nightmare with pets triggering the buff and pretty much making it unhealable.
Transtion Frost: Run run run, put some damage on the cubs and dispel people (Freedom works like a charm here). People might say that Imp. Ghost wolf is required, and in some way it does make it easier, however, Telluric Currents got more potential from my point of view. Since on 25man with druid roar, and the possibility that you can just jump into the blue circle – take the 20-25k damage and jump back to the outer ring when the spike has passed. It is really not that complicated (When they suddenly nerfed the speed of the spike during the fight we had 4 people running into the spike due to it being slower :] ). After each transition Hargara will take 100% extra damage, and this is where you want to hit your Lightninbolt. I gained 150k mana when we downed him @ 10man from these transitions, I say TC > Imp. Ghost wolf for that fight.

Ultraxion: PTR with 2-300 ms while trying to push your HPs lead to some stupid deaths (a few by meself). We ran with 2 resto shamans, and this is where Ancestral Vigor really shines, and why is that you might ask ? A) The aoe is quite high, people who needs to soak comes out with 10k more HP which is quite nifty, and you will be able to keep it up very very close to a 100% with 2 x resto shamans with 2 x HR and CH + Riptide spam (However, it is a little hard on your mana, and with A) The aoe is quite high, people who needs to soak comes out with 10k more HP which is quite nifty, and you will be able to keep it up very very close to a 100% with 2 x resto shamans with 2 x HR and CH + Riptide spam (However, it is a little hard on your mana, and with our WS proccing more often than on Beth’ well – you got enough buttons to push).
I am going to stop here in regards to the fights since I don’t want to hand out too many free hints, and then address the second part.


Is the QQ on forums regarding shamans for 4.3 justified ?
Short answer: No.
Long answer: Oh hell no, with Ancestral Vigor most guild will want to bring a restoration shaman for 4.3 due to the extra HP on tanks (Anyone saying – Ah it is a gimmick and not worth it , well here is a question – Do you ask your priests to buff Fortitude, if yes – stfu. If no – Go play “Hello Kitty”.
The buff to Riptide is decent, however, since you will be using Riptide to keep Vigor running on 1-2 tanks quite a lot of it will be overhealing, but then again so would it be if you threw it on a raid member anyway.
Furthermore, since a big chunk of the fights is “gather and heal” we are in a very good spot. There will of course be fights that favor one class or the other, but it has always been so the only difference is that we now are applying more heavily for a raidspot.