Looking for Raid.

Hey, I heard you liked Looking for Raid ?

An old gem, which was made at the beginning of Cataclysm, and which I think needs to be reposted a few times due to the recent "Looking for Raid (Raid should be "Retards")".

And no, I am not bashing the people who run the LFR, I am throwing the rocks at Blizzard for making a dumbed down version of their bosses. I can see the logic in making LFR so that more people can see the content, but you don't really learn anything from LFR it is "BOSS, KEEL KEEL - Boss dead - SHINIES NOM NOM". You don't learn jack shit from it, and the abilites which your gamedesigners made for the boss is clearly either not presented or they are so weak that you hardly notice them. So basically you get to see the reused animations, some shiney new places or well familiar places with enemies, yay?

I am rather bored since I am banned until the 14th so that is the reason for the QQing.

Amazing:

Funny:

On the LFR ”Exploit”

"Exploit"
So today quite a lot of players from the top tier of guilds noticed that they have had their accounts suspended, and that is including myself.

So what is this “exploit” – Well, since Blizzard didn’t bother to fix the obvious bug, which had been reported nor bothered to fix several bugs e.g. as on the Madness encounter where you still can die from jumping from one platform to another (But you can transmogrify your gear and look like you are in t2, t6 or whatever floats your boat ! IMPORTANT STUFF).

The “exploit” was confirmed by US guilds on patch day, which would be Tuesday and all the other European people started to do it as well when it was made obvious. Now, why ? Gear, it is as simple as that since some of the set-bonuses is quite good and despite being lower item level the bonus can make up for it.
It might be claimed that it would be obvious that it was unintentional and that we therefore should have restrained ourselves from doing it, sure, it is a great argument, but since there isn’t any “standards” regarding what is considered an “exploit”, and furthermore Nefarian, Atramedes and countless other bosses and instances have had bugs or exploits which have been far, far more abused. So the question is; Why now ? And 8 days ?

Why now? No clue, someone seems to have gone bonkers going “Es will nicht stand, Es war ein Befahlüng” (Or whatever). Furthermore, 8 days ? If the amount of days is correct it will be 5 days more than any previous bans, not counting permanent bans. And, it will give those guild a severe disadvantage in regards to world firsts due to the lack of one resets loot and valor points, and this might not seem like a big deal, but the first few heroic loots a long with valor point loot which currently will be some decent upgrades along the fact that they will have more tries and time to test tactics.

Now, why am I whining if it is my own fault ? Well, because I don’t think it is and this is for a number of reasons. First being – I am paying Blizzard for a service (World of Warcraft) and I expect to not encounter severe bugs (Hello random deaths while jumping from platform to platform at Madness of Deathwing). If I go to the baker and buy bread I do expect it to be fully baked and not be dough, unless it is what I specific want. Furthermore, Blizzard is gaining quite a lot of feedback and data from top50 guilds playing on PTR, and basically testing their stuff for free. Sure, you may argue that you juts could walk away and just try the encounter when it is released at the live server, but then again if you want to be competitive, well, I guess you get the idea.

I must admit I do really regret I signed up for the mount and a Diablo 3 beta key for as I see this level of customer service, mainly the bit in their mail that it is not up to discussion and in fact any inquires will be met with the same response. So I am getting banned for something you failed to fix before the release, and when you found out you then decided to wait several days before taking action, wow – really? Fucking pieces of shit. I remember back in Classic and The Burning Crusade that e.g. whenever the servers weren’t up according to the time plan you would be “refunded” in game time. Those days are long gone, and it looks like the preferred way of dealing with things is banning instead of taking responsibility for your own inability to release a product which is finished. What is it that companies usually do when their product isn’t finished? Oh, yeah they postpone it.

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:

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. 

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.  

Telluric Currents part 3 - Ragnaros Heroic.

I have recently switched guild form my old guild to another, and this has resulted in a little inactivity on my blog, however,  I will try to make up for that now.

I have made a couple of posts regarding Telluric Currents in Firelands, and how I made it work for me for the first 6 / 7 bosses, but since I was benched for my old guilds progres and with me being new in the new guild I have only recently been able to try it on Ragnaros HC.
Nonetheless, let me talk about the information and feel that I have got from Telluric Currents on this end boss. 

Short version: It is brilliant.

Long version: It is fucking brilliant !

I looked into the last kill of Ragnaros HC with my Telluric Currents spec and I must admit I was a little shocked about how much mana I had gained from it.
I had casted 45 Lightning Bolts while 9 of them had missed, and since I got "Shard of Woe" (Will talk about switching it for 4.3 if the nerf to it goes live) a Lightning Bolt costs me 1000 mana. So I spend 45000 mana on Lightning Bolts and the return was 168019 mana which is a neat gain of some 123000 mana. 

However, it must be said that we were running with 5 healers and I suspect that with 4 or even 3 I would have far less time to cast Lightning Bolts, but then again the "dangerous" phases will also be shortened and thereby I think it will equal out.

How to make Telluric Currents work and when to cast Lightning Bolts ?
It is hard to give a do A when B and C when D guide, but in phase 1 you can throw in a LB or two if the tank is toppede and no has suffered damage from knockback, and I personally prefer to throw a LB than a HW, but I play with a shaman how does the opposite and that works for him.
However, when the transition phase starts you got plenty of time to get 3-4 LBs casted on Ragnaros while he "casts" "Sons of Flame" and if you feel like you can manage it then you can always throw a Lightning Bolt on the adds to a) Help out and b) Get a little more mana.

Second Phase is also decent to get a few LBs in when the raid is stacked and you got 4-5 healers looking out for the tank, well - What is the point in keeping anything but a Riptide on him and then throw out some LBs.

For the next transition phase I wouldn't reckomend to cast Lightning Bolts since there is quite a lot of more damage with the two Scions up. However, when you reach phase three where most people pop heroism to avoid getting more than 2 meteors, and the only damage is on the tanks and when people take an Engulfing tick you can easily spam Lightning Bolts during Bloodlust. I usually go from 10-20% mana to 90-100% depending on various factors, but it is important to have a decent amount of mana for the last phase.

There isn't much room for LBing in this phase unless you are very, very low on mana since it does require some moderate use of GHW and Healing Rain which drains mana.

Furthermore, Telluric Currents gets better and better as our haste / crit raitings gets higher, and the more Intellect we get the harder it hits thereby becomming a better and better investment. And since our Water Shield doesn't scale with our stats I do suspect that Telluric Currents will become a mandatory stat for 4.3 unless you go all out with spirit, which in my opinion is silly (depending on the encounter) but if we look at the current encounter design it is "build" arround either a) steady damage - Where spirit can shine e.g Baleroc or b) Damage in heavy bursts as Rhyolith, Beth'tilac and Ragnaros where for progression I would go for mastery since it increase the effieciency of your heal when people are "down there". Some would most likely go for crit after reaching 2005 haste breakpoint of Riptide (since the buff to it I would strongly urge people to aim for that) (1858 for goblins - yah ! ) since it will increase the mana returned from "Resurgence", but I dislike crit after having played a fire mage in WOLTK after the "Cata patch" and crit just went south due to the percentage simply got to low and became to RNG. 

Now - Let us see if Telluric Currents will be mandatory for 4.3 and Deathwing - Only time can tell.

4.3 PTR builds and shaman setbonus – Soo much loooooove.

So according to various posts this is currently the 2- and 4-set bonuses which is what we restoration shamans can look forward to in 4.3. 

·  Restoration, 2P -- After using Mana Tide Totem, the cost of your healing spells are reduced by 25% for 15 sec.

·  Restoration, 4P -- Increases the duration of Spiritwalker's Grace by 5 sec, and you gain 30% haste while Spiritwalker's grace is active.

Let us look at the 2-set bonus first, okay – Mana Tide should be used either for heavy burst healing situations or for regn. a lot from a Telluric Currents build. I like the set bonus in some way, but I do have an issue and that is: If the bonus is made with a focus on fights with sudden bursts of damage, and that quite a lot of mana will be required to spend to keep people alive, well – 25% less mana spend on spells is nice, however, you will need to repositioning your Healing Stream totem before “the big bang” since it is simply way too much healing wasted if it isn’t up. I know that Blizzard wants to make the totems mechanics more interesting, but compared to the druids innervate? And yes, I clapped my small fat hands when I read about the Wild Growth “adjustment”, but I do have some issues with the bonus being tied to Mana Tide.

The 4-set bonus is quite interesting, and is effectively a 2min on demand heroism for you and you only, but you will also have to think more about how you use Spiritwalker’s Grace – Do you use it for movement or for pure throughput? That will depend on the fight, but I think this is a very important step in order to put shamans more in line with the other healers, and a throughput CD is what I have longed for ever since I parted with my paladin just before Firelands, and whenever I pressed “Tree of Life” on my druid.  

I think that compared to the other healers that we have received some quite useful set-bonuses, and in spite of our 2-set is pretty much alike all the way around, well – if this goes live, dr00l – we won the 4-set. Druids – Chance to get more OH ? Priests – Chance to Absorb more or Holy Word uselessness (yey ? I hardly know anything about holy), and Paladins – More healing on your AoE spell which is now becoming a cast.

Restoration Changes for 4.3 as of ptr. 14732.

• Ancestral Healing got an extra effect - heals you cast increase allies' maximum health by 10% of the amount healed, up to a maximum of 10% of their health.
• Cleansing Waters - The heal effect can only occur once every 6 seconds.
• Riptide healing effect has been increased by 50%, from 3725 to 5585.

Cleansing Waters – Is a PVP change from my point of view, and I honestly doesn’t give a rats ass about it.

Riptide – I suspect that due to the changes to the healing received by the healing over time effect, and the fact that our mastery, haste, crit levels rise that most people will aim for 2005 for the extra tick or 1858 for goblins. Since Riptide usually is in top #5 of my healing spells I welcome this change very, very, very much.

Now, let us talk about the elephant on acid which just entered to room and went bonkers and forced the developers to give the restoration shamans steroids, superpowers and changes to Ancestral Healing.

Assuming this effect stacks, you will during heavy AoE situations with people clustered up and you spamming Healing Rain on CD while filling with Chain Heals and EFL rolling on everyone along with the 2-5% extra crit you will get from the higher itemlevles (This is my estimate, I could be quite off, but if this goes live I will assume that crit will become a far, far more interesting stats) and the rising HP levels to 150k – 170k for “none tanks” that is just 15-17k more effective health (When the stars align, and assuming this stacks with the various 4-set bonuses which the tanking classes will be granted … Well, I assume there is some heavy AoE fights ahead and since restoration druids just got the shaft in regards to Wild Growth, which in some way is fair enough because they are getting close to being able to spam Rej. more or less constantly and not really having to look at their mana bar.

Or – We could be paired with Disc priests and thrown on tank healing since I assume tanks will hit close to 280.000-300.000 HP and with our “magic”, well – I assume you know I mean.

I have my doubts if there isn’t coming some kind of restrictions or changes to this because it make a shaman quite mandatory for a raid, however, on the other hand – Burn druids know your place !