I’d Rather Be Wowing!

Some of my thoughts as the patch looms over the horizon.

I wish I’ve done this…

Sarth+drakes (1+).  Reading about it, it sounds like a fun and chaotic fight and I wish I could have experienced it. If the patch comes up  next week, the focus of our raid group will shift to Ulduar and most likely we’ll never end up attempting this.  I know that in the future there are probably pug groups forming trying for achievements. But I don’t think it will be the same rush as when our gears are on par for the encounters.

My most (and least) anticipated things in patch…

Excluding the new raid content (because that’s a no-brainer), it is a toss up between dual-spec feature and the new fishing content (dailies and new turtle mount) :). It just happens that the two specs that I play the most — my shadow priest and resto shaman — don’t really get new things to play with. Sure, E will get an improve DP, but that barely changes her rotation (tangent question: does the initial instant damage for DP crittable?).  V, my resto shammy, doesn’t even get any new spell. It’s hard not to be envious with other specs that seem to get at least one new thing.

When dual-spec comes out…

E will be specced as Shadow and Holy.

V will be specced as Resto and Ele.

Val will be specced as Prot and Ret. Her chance to raid seems to be slim to none (our guild is starting to have a lot of guildies leveling tanks as their alt). It would be kinda nice to spec Ret just for dailies or to go along when they need dps, but I don’t think I’m cut out to be a melee dps :).

My new talent builds will be…

Ahh, finally we might see some different builds for shadow priests.   E’s tentative build will be this. It’s a toss up between taking off IF and putting the point to Veiled Shadows, it will boil down to whether mana regen is an issue or not. It’s really hard to take points off from Imp VE from the view point of survivability, especially with the rumor of having a lot of AoE dmg, but I am hoping that the magic dmg reduction from Imp SF and additional stamina from imp PW:Fort can somewhat compensate it.

I am not seeing any change with V’s build and I haven’t spent my time looking at the new talent tree for Prot pally.

I hope that this doesn’t come across as a post that were caused from “dissecting” Blizzard’s statements too much. Sometimes I’m just puzzled to they way things were designed.

About homogenization

At one point, Blizzard decides that homogenization of stats are good so that one gear can be considered useful for multiple classes/specs. One big change was the integration between healing and spell powers. I am all up for it, I don’t like loots to be wasted when other people can use it, even if being a cloth caster, I am affected with this the most with respect to the number of people competing for the gears. For most part, I think Blizzard has done a good job to achieve it. The latest example is by removing the druid-only staff, and integrate the druid-stats in general. There are other homogenization that I still find lacking, for example spell power plate can only be used by holy paladin alone. But I can understand the difficulty in changing that.

What puzzled me is how this principle of reducing the chance that the drop loots are not usable by anybody failed to translate for Vault of Archavon (VoA) instance.  According to wowwiki:

On Normal (10 man), he (Archavon) drops two items, which can be a hand, leg or chest T7 (10) set piece for any class (the item itself, not the token) or the new Hateful Gladiator’s Season 5 assortments.

Doesn’t dropping the items themselves - further divided to certain specs for each class, instead of the tokens, , essentially restrict the number of people that can vie for the item? I failed to see the reasoning behind this.

The championing system works in raid. With both 10 and 25 man raid, I don’t always have time to run heroics. I’ve been trying to get my rep up with the wrymrest accord, but with their measly 3 daily quests (750 rep total), it will take me almost 2 weeks even if I dilligently do them.

Crafted bags are not soulbound.  I have a bunch of 18 slot bags on E since she started crafting the 20 slog bags. While on Val and Vh, they mostly don 16 slot bags.  But, I can’t even do anything with the spare bags that I have in the bank unless vendor it. It’s such a waste.

We were excited to continue Naxx10 yesterday and make it another new boss night. We were planning to do the 4 horsemen fight and looking forward to practice the safety dance with Heigan. Also, for the first time ever, we didn’t need to pug. Our enhancement shammy managed to leveled up his DK and geared him to the def cap - which involves too-many-to-count trips to HoL, with guildies and with pug (I’m in most of the run, I think I can run that place in my sleep now).

Alas, when we came in, as we are running to Heigan, something was amis. It was too quiet. “Err…isn’t there supposes to be trash mobs in here”, said our GL. Yeah, our raid ID get “stolen”, and this “group” has fully cleared the place.

We were disappointed, that’s for sure. Our GL and our shammy/dk took the blow the most. We were speculating who might have took the raid ID. We run with a total of 3 pug members that week - two offtanks (one on Tues which didn’t end up too well because of the massive lag and another one Thurs that ended up guiding us to a lot of new bosses), and a boomkin. From those three, only the boomkin was online yesterday. So I decided to chat with her - not really knowing how to put things so that she won’t get offended and think we are suspecting her. Luckily the boomkin was so sweet and very understanding, but also was innocent. So it’s between the two tanks. But I don’t think we’ll ever know.

It’s funny with the number of times that we’ve run raid with pugs that this was the first time it ever happened. It’s a “gentle” reminder to choose wisely who you pug with.

Our GL, regardless how disappointed he is, still mentioned that in a sense, if it was the 2nd tank that took the raid ID, the instance is as much right to his as to ours since he helped in the majority of it. Also maybe since he was aware that we were planning to go again over the weekend (which we didn’t end up going), and he might think by then, if we wouldn’t be able to fully clear the place anyway, it is okay to take advantage of the partial clear. Regardless, it would be nice if he would check with us before taking it :(.

And it would be…holy priest.

I’m joining Pugnacious Priest in the struggle to remain a shadow priest in the midst of healer shortage.

The topic came up yesterday. If the guild wants to attempt Naxx (10) relatively soon, they might need me to switch to healing. And I think I might be okay with it. But not without some uncertainties lingering.

Why yes

To start off, let me tell you why I don’t mind it too much.

First, I actually enjoy healing. And between all the healing classes, priest’s healing style does fit me the most. Without that, I don’t think I would even consider it. (For example, I would never heal as a paladin.)

Two, being the few of the first lvl 80 in the guild, I had to resort to PUG quite frequently.  There are usually two things that happened: (1) the pug group was stuck in finding a healer and (2) the pug group try to coax you to healing, saying that it could be done. I’ve come to realize that being a healer would almost guarantee me a constant run of heroics, etc. I don’t need to wait for hours just to get a group (whether or not it’s okay being in a pug group is an entirely different matter).  Being able to run heroics consistently mean I would be able to get the reps and the emblem faster. Also, as one person mentioned to me before, many of the PUG groups are surprisingly lacking of casters, which would allow me to snatch some dps pieces as well.

Three, and probably the most important thing, I trust my GL and my guildies. We are a very closed-knit group, and I know even if I said no and decided in the future that I don’t want to do it, they won’t hold it against me. I guess what I’m trying to say, not being “forced” into it, does help in being positive to the idea.

Why no

I love being/playing a shadow priest. I love my shadow form. I love my utilities. I love the intricacy of managing my rotation. I don’t really want to give them up.

Would I be a better asset as a good DPS-er or a mediocre healer? I haven’t had much experienced in healing. But I know enough that just because you can heal, it doesn’t mean that you are a good healer. I have to start all over again, understanding how to be a good priest healer. I am worried that being a mediocre healer is all I can do.

It’s generally known that healing does come with some stress/pressure (and guilt from allowing a wipe). I don’t know if I can deal with that in regular basis.

Just plain why

We have three healers that are currently leveling. Two of them are not on consistently. The other one just plain hate leveling (that’s why it took him forever). When (or if) they ever catch up to us, I am sure that I can go back to being a dps. But the question is, would there be a dps spot for me? Also, if this healing position is not really permanent, how should I manage my gearing up process? Rolling for dps gears against other casters would certainly be selfish. Rolling for healing gears against other healers when I know I’ll be leaving the post in the future doesn’t seem in the group/guild’s best interest.

E run two more new instances over the weekend: Violet Hold (75-77) and Gundrak (76-78). I notice that from all the instances that E now has run, there is a certain lack of CC required - almost every pulls is: tank going in, and regardless to how many number of mobs in the pull, and we would just proceed to AoE them down. These were done even in the context of groups that are about the same level or lower than the recommended instance levels. The only exception was on the Gundrak’s run, where we actually utilized the rogue’s sap - but it was mainly because we have a shadow priest healing on his healing gears (not yours truly obviously :)). I am going to echo the sentiment that, the instances so far are all seems too easy. Not that I am complaining about it or anything.

I remember that when we first start running the BC’s dungeons, we have to utilize many tricks in the book in order to successfully go through them. Even now, I still remember our guild’s hatred for Auch Crypts due to so many wipes in the trash pulls. In those runs,  we use focus fire, various forms of cc including MC and off-tanking. For every group makeup, there’s a bit of thinking that may be required to get through the dungeons by utilizing every player’s (class) unique strengths. I found this to be completely missing in Wrath. It does seem to resonate with the change of direction that Blizzard has took to make sure that players are invited because of their skills and not their classes. Being a spec/class whose only forms of CC are situational and often undesirable, I welcome the change completely in the regular 5-man settings. I like to be able to put myself in the LFG, actually gets a group and without seeing things like - LF for dps - need Mage/Lock/Rogue/Hunter (choose your pick). But somehow, I miss having the feeling of accomplishment from being able to clear dungeons with a less than optimal group makeup.

I’ve yet to run heroic versions of any of the Wrath’s dungeons. I remember reading a Blizzard’s blue posters sometimes ago that heroic will be a different kind of beast. Also, according to GC in his post about adding AE capabilities to shammy, rogues, and feral druid, in Heroic and Naxx, we cannot (or shouldn’t be able to) simply AoE down everything. I wonder by the time we reach that point in the progression, will players, especially newer players that just recently involve in the grouping aspect of the game, have enough experience to be a good team player? I wonder if the cc-less classes will have problem in getting a group once again?

One thing I noticed as I gained a level higher is that mana regen plummeted as well. I initially started with the talent build that picks up the good stuff (aka dps enhancing) in the shadow tree up to Dispersion, before going to Disc. At lvl 75, I still don’t have enough points for Meditation. During levelling, I don’t find it to be too troublesome. With spirit tap after every single kill, rotating shadowfiend and dispersion whenever they are up, I could kill things fast and usually don’t have to stop and drink. There’s also enough traveling between locations that my mana will be full in time for me to start another batch of quests.

While instancing, however, the lack of mana regeration is much more noticeable. I noticed that I am the only one from the group that usually needs to sit and drink after 2-3 pulls - seeing that my GL/MT never wants to wait between pull, I often end up resorting to less mana intensive priorities. Darn those warlocks and their life tap. Replenishment doesn’t really do squat for me, with my crits rating plummeting as well, the frequency of spirit tap to proc is less and less, and I need to time my shadowfiend and dispersion so that I don’t have them in cooldown in time for boss fight.

Afterward, I respecced and grabbed all the 3 points of Meditation before going into the shadow tree. At my level, I am able to go all the way to Dispersion while only sacrificing the talent that gives more crit chances and other utilities (VE, threat reduction, and shadowfiend cd reduction). This spec works quite as well during levelling and it provides more longevity during instances. But I found that it’s still not enough.

From the 5 instances that I’ve done (Ut Keep, Nexus, Azjol-Nerub, Ahn’Kahet, and Drak’tharon), there are at least 1 boss fight that involves repeated phases, where in each of the phase, you would have to redo all your dots (think Lurker). For example in Ut Keep, the last boss will die and ress back, so you need to re-apply your dots all over again. This is probably the least taxing example of this type of fights. In the latter 3 instances I listed, it is common for a boss fight to go as long as 3-4 repeated phases.

In Azjol-Nerub, the 2nd boss that you encounter consisted of 3 “pulls” of trashes before the boss appears. It is not really a pull per se, however, as you are placed in combat from the moment you pulled the first trash until you killed the boss. So even when you just sit around waiting, you cannot drink up in between. The last boss of that instance repeatedly burrows himself, spawning a bunch of trashes, and come back up - each time the period in which he stays above the ground becomes shorter. During these types of fights, I’ve been so challenged in managing my mana that even with drinking pots, shadowfiend, and dispersion, I can end up oom toward the end of the fight.

Granted that I still use much of my lvl 70 gears that are sorely lacking in spirit (I think only 1 piece has spirit in it, and I replaced one of boots with one that has spirit). I remember when some people in beta are complaining about this, GC simply said for us to equip more spirit based gear. But most of the time, spirit-based gears don’t really have other good stats, such as crits, hits, and hastes (this actually a bit more common than the previous two).  Well, maybe I just need to suck it up, put more spirit-based gears even if I need to sacrifice some of my spell power.

E dinged 75 yesterday and had been Mind Sear-ing ever since! (Also died twice because of being over-excited and tried it on to more mobs that E can handle :)).

Having an AoE type arsenal, especially one with “unique” mechanism such as Mind Sear, certainly adds an interesting twist in her playstyle. So Mind-sear:

1. is a 5-sec channeled spell that ticks every one second with the cost of 28% base mana.
2. damages the mobs 10 yds around the target, but not the target itself.

With these characteristics, it seems reasonable to only cast Mind Sear on the target that won’t die too fast, in order for Mind Sear to be cost-effective. What I am struggling with is finding a good spell “rotation” prior doing Mind Sear. There are some approaches that I can think of.

The first strategy is to maintain full dots on one mob and use that mob to start Mind Sear. With this approach, it is generally easy to interleave other spells in order to maintain full dots and replenishment. But we may run into the problem of having the main target dies prematurely. I found this approach works great for pulls with one elite and multiple non-elite adds or in boss fights that have multiple waves of adds (some encounters that come to mind: first boss in Utgarde Keep, the first boss in Azjol-Nerub, and the Novos the Summoner fight in Drak’Tharon keep).

The second strategy is to keep the dots on multiple mobs, usually SW:P because it’s instant and spammable before proceeding to mind sear them. This way, we spread the Misery debuffs on multiple target and increases mind sear damage on these targets up to 15% of your spell power. Unfortunately since SW:P is only refreshed by Mind Flay - with long fights, we might end up with the debuffs and SW:P dropping prematurely. Also the upfront overhead to unload the dots may be not ideal for too short of fight. This approach seems preferrable for groups of multiple Elites.

Of course, there are the extremes of just doing Mind Sear right away if you have groups on non-elites and combining the first strategy with 2nd one. Based on your experience, do you have a good approach/tips to when and how Mind Sear should be used?

I’m a shadow priest…isn’t it obvious ?

By now, I’m sure you’ve heard about the scourge invasion event getting started (if you haven’t, read here for more info). A couple guildies and I went to BB. That corrupted crates are mighty attractive. So what if touching it caused you to be infected? And so what if I actually have a “cure disease” button placed so conveniently on my spell bar? Being a zombie is definitely more fun than being an boring ol draenei :).

But, who knows that Zombies lead such a hard life?

1. We are frequently misunderstood. Everybody out to get us. The fact that everything we said ended up being a gibberish to other healthy people doesn’t help either. We don’t try to eat you because we are bad (some do), we try to eat you because we are lonely.
2. And also because we try to survive. Every second spent not eating brain sucks the living out of us.  We are always hungry.
3. I wish I exercised more before I was zombified, because I can feel all the muscle pains when I walk now. I only have the strength to run every 30 sec. So give us zombies a favor and stop running away from us.
4. Where did my brain go (oh yeah someone ate it), because every healthy person knows that you need to run away from a ret pally, not to chase em to eat their brain, especially the zealous ones who made it their life goal to eradicate the infected.

In all seriousness, it does take an effort to stay a zombie for a long time. We made a mistake of hanging round in the city when we turn and the guards made an easy target of us. Even when you think you are in the place where there weren’t any guard around, if you are in the city, it seems like a guard can always find you. Before you turn to zombie, run out to a safe area (watch out for the argent healers, you can usually out-range them so they couldn’t heal you). Generally, avoid a large gathering because you’ll never know if someone would attempt to cure you. If you are a warlock, you can kill yourself with hellfire and turn yourself into zombie in much shorter time. It is definitely better to travel in group. If you have to die, do it in style. Also, I read about durability damage if you are killed as a zombie. I was killed many times yesterday, but it only cost me 4g to repair, so I’m not sure if that’s really the case.

Warning: This is a long ranty post!

When I first read about achievements, I was excited. It was truly a challenge for the completist side of me. The achievements system makes it easy to keep track what are the things that I’ve done, but more importantly, the things that I haven’t done. Fast forward to now, although I still appreciates the achievement system (mostly for its tracking functionality), I have to admit that I am starting to dislike what the system made me feel. (And no, I don’t really mind the constant spamming of achievement in the guild chat, which I just learnt today can be turned off :)).

If you are reading the forum these couple of days, you would find many posts requesting the removal of the Sinister Calling from being in the requirement of obtaining the Hallowed title. While I understand and appreciate Blizzard’s decision and thinking, being one of those poeple who can’t seem to get a break in RNG even if their lives depend on it, I have to be in many posters’ side. You may argue that it is too soon to even criticize the drop rate of such items, and I agree with that. The issue is really the reliance on some of the achievements on RNG, not just limited in this particular achievement (or title). For myself, I dread the RNG type achievement because no matter how hard or how long I spent the time working on it, I know that I am not guaranteed in getting it. It takes away something that is supposed to be fun and surprising, like opening the treat bag that you get from your innkeeper, especially when you are getting lollipop for the 3rd time in the row :).

Another example of how achievement managed to suck the fun out from the event is with the Halloween’s wand. It is becoming rare the case where people would turn other people just for giggle and laugh, now some people would hoard the wands just so that they can sell it to other people trying to complete their achievements. Or they will only use theirs in exchange with other people’s wands. It is a valid business opportunity, and I don’t blame them for it, but I missed the days where people do things really just because they can.

More importantly, however, I feel that these achievements manage to bring greediness and nastiness in people. I was running AQ40 for achievement yesterday, and we have agreed that whenever that crystal to summon the mount drop, unless you already have one, you are allowed to roll need on it. If you don’t know, this drop (which has a variety of colors) counts toward your mount achievement. Soon enough, this simple concept and courtesy got thrown out of the window. People who already got one just kept rolling need on the item. People start pointing fingers to other people who they think have already got one, and yet still rolling for another one. And I am in on one unpleasant ride. Another example of this is the people who pretends that they have summon, when they actually don’t, or ones that do not bother to state the fact before asking you to join the group (I know that this is partially my fault for not asking, but you would think people have enough courtesy to do it).

I know that all the examples I pointed out are probably still there regardless if there are achievements or not. But I do think that their frequencies are aggravated by the existence of achievements.