I’d Rather Be Wowing!

Note: Your profit may vary depending on the market price in your server.

When you hit 390 in JC, which should be pretty easy to do, you can make Stoneguard Band. The skill is available for learning from any of the Northrend JC trainers. The ring is relatively cheap to make, as it only requires two Eternal Earths. If you are also a miner, it’s even better since it’s most likely you have the materials in abundance. Even if you are not, the Elementals that you need to kill for one of the Sons of Hodir’s dailies drop some Crystallite Earths too. Because of the easeness in obtaining those, they are usually priced pretty low in AH. I can usually get an Eternal Earth for about 5g.

Dis-enchanting the item will net you (usually) 3-5 infinite dust or cosmic essences. The dust, at least, sells for at least 7g in AH each. I believe it’s even higher for lesser/greater cosmic essences.

The pattern stays green up to 420, which is when JC-er can learn most of the meta gems. So if you are trying to level up your JC too, it’s killing two birds with one stone.

The profit may not be extremely big, but I think it can add up :).

Yesterday, E is exalted with Kirin Tor, snatched the Robes of Crackling Flame (and see her hit rating plummeted again), Design: Runed Scarlet Ruby (the casters and healers in the guild are happy about this as well), plus Pattern: Sapphire Spellthread (though I’m still 5 points short to learn it). E finally hits revered with Sons of Hodir as well. Although it’s still another long journey to Exalted, at least it’s one step closer. Now, if I could only find some Everfrost chips to speed things up. She’s still deciding which rep to work on next.

E has been pushing for getting the Loremaster of Northrend achievement as well, mainly so that she can learn the pattern for Deathchill Cloak. Two days ago, she completed the quest achievement in Zul’Drak zone, and now she’s working on the last zone - Icecrown (10% into it right now).

In term of gearing up, this week E gets a pretty significant upgrade. She won a roll for Azure Cloth Bindings. And she finally has enough points to score Plush Sash of Guzbah. The guild’s BS was kind enough to make me Eternal Belt Buckle for free to put to the belt. Unfortunately, all these, especially the belt, will be mostly non-optimal if (and when) I switch.

Enough about E :). Val hits 75 today. I love hitting 75 because of the new spell we get to learn. At 75, Val learns Shield of Righteousness, which is one of the bread and butter spells for protection paladin. Now, she has to practice the optimal 96969 rotations. Her defense rating has been slowly dropping, but she doesn’t really have a sure way to upgrade them until she’s a bit higher. She’s been eyeing some of the BS’s craftable items, but although they are filled with defense, there isn’t much of avoidance stats in them. I need to make her a gear list :). On that note, she kept hearing for her trusted healers that she’s getting a bit harder to heal. So she needs to work on finding  out why that is the case.

Vh is respecced into elemental and hits 72 yesterday. I found that with her low spell power (she’s not that well geared to begin with), it’s really hard to heal for pug, especially some think that they can just march in there, grab groups of multiple mobs, and play sloppy - especially when the tank him/herself was just barely geared and dps weren’t doing high enough damage. Not that it’s not doable, it’s just extremely taxing. Playing Vh as a bursty dps feels so much different than when playing E. When dps-ing as E, she starts slow, setting up everything before she can “nuke”. On the other hand, dps-ing as Vh just feels so free. I’m really liking the different play style.

It feels great to see some of the goals finally come (or come close) to completion this week. Although that just opens up more targets to do, right now I’m just enjoying it :).

Shadow Priest related ones according to MMO-Champion:

• Abolish Disease and Cure Disease can now be cast while in Shadowform.
  We have been asking for this for a long time. I’m glad that they finally give them to us.
• Levitate is now castable on others.
  For any quests that are related with large body of water, I like to cast levitate and mount (flying mount) up. I’ve always feel bad that I can’t give my party member the same perks.
• Shadow
  • Shadowform: You can now shift into Shadowform while mounted or sitting. I
    don’t think this one makes any difference for me. Unless, if it works when you are eating/drinking too. Hmm…
    
  • Vampiric Embrace:  Mana cost of this spell has been removed.
    The mana cost of this spell is really miniscule to begin with. I guess we can now use it when we completely run out of mana. But since we have to do more damage to get more heal, I’m not really sure what is the point. The only thing that may be useful is that using VE will help us in getting FSR, but FSR is not usually the concern for any shadow priest. I won’t complain for the convenience though

Edit: Ooh, how could I miss this!? Is that mean no more need for SW:D pull??

Tapping: All player spells which cause a creature to become aggressive to you will now also immediately cause the creature to be tapped.

It seems that several people arrived to this blog because of my old post about my take on the WotLK’s talent build. I feel kinda bad that the information on that post is mostly not relevant anymore and there’s no updated talent build ever since. Hence, the reason of this post.

Merlot over at the Misery has written a great assessment to shadow talents in general. Take a look over there if you are planning your own shadow build either for leveling or for raiding.

Here is the link to my current build. Keep in mind that I’m more PvE focused.

My take to my build choices.

Discipline (14 points)

Twin Disciplines - Rank 5/5
Increases the damage and healing done by your instant spells by 5%.
Anything that increases damages is a good thing. This is a very accessible talent in Discipline tree and for PvE, this is a clearly a better choice compared to Unbreakable Will.

Improved Inner Fire - Rank 3/3
Increases the effect of your Inner Fire spell by 45%, and increases the total number of charges by 12.
At level 71, our inner fire is injected with steroid to provide additional spell power. With this talent, at level 80, having inner fire means an additional of  174 free spell power. Not too shabby.

Improved Power Word: Fortitude - Rank 2/2
Increases the effect of your Power Word: Fortitude and Prayer of Fortitude spells by 30%.
This is great to help out in buffing your group, especially if you are the only priest in the group, but it’s totally compulsory.

Inner Focus - Rank 1/1
When activated, reduces the mana cost of your next spell by 100% and increases its critical effect chance by 25% if it is capable of a critical effect.
This is another optional talent. The free cast is great but I picked it because of its synergy to the Improved Spirit Tap and the Glyph of Shadow (While in Shadowform, your spell critical strikes increase your spell power by 10% of your Spirit for 10 sec). And yes, they do stack. Triggering IF with MB almost guarantee procs from both.

Meditation - Rank 3/3
Allows 30% of your mana regeneration to continue while casting.
I found speccing into this as compulsory. Even with it, I found myself relying on my fiend and dispersion to not running out of mana too often.

Shadow (57 points)

Spirit Tap - Rank 3/3
Gives you a 100% chance to gain a 100% bonus to your Spirit after killing a target that yields experience or honor. For the duration, your mana will regenerate at a 50% rate while casting. Lasts 15 sec.
For leveling and grinding, this talent is indispensable. There are some use of it for instance/raid provided that you can get the killing blow. Speaking only for instances, there are many occasions where you can trigger spirit tap (e.g., trash mob AoE). Even without it, being a requirement to Imp Spirit Tap is enough justification to put points to it.

Improved Spirit Tap - Rank 2/2
Your Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death critical strikes increase your total Spirit by 10%. For the duration, your mana will regenerate at a 20% rate while casting. Lasts 8 sec.
This and Twisted Faith will give 3% spirit as your spell power when it procs. I actually found it to be underwhelming at my current gear. But spell power is spell power. And who knows how much spirit we are donning at later stage. Compared to blackout, this talent does increase your damage.

Improved Shadow Word: Pain - Rank 2/2
Increases the damage of your Shadow Word: Pain spell by 6%.
More damage to your bread and butter dot. Should I say anything more?

Shadow Focus - Rank 3/3
Increases your chance to hit with your Shadow spells by 3%, and reduces the mana cost of your Shadow spells by 6%.
3% hit chance means 3*26 less spell hit in your gear = more other stats. The mana reduction is also necessary considering how expensive our spells are.

Improved Mind Blast - Rank 5/5
Reduces the cooldown of your Mind Blast spell by 2.5 sec.
Well more MB means more damage. But, keep in mind that MB is also mana extensive. It really depends whether your gear can support it, otherwise, the cooldown reduction can be wasteful. You can reduce the points in here and put into shadow affinity (reduce threat from shadow spells). I don’t have any points there, and I don’t seem to have any problem with my threats.

Mind Flay - Rank 1/1
Assault the target’s mind with Shadow energy, causing 588 Shadow damage over 3 sec and slowing their movement speed by 50%.
I’m sorry for sounding harsh but you are not a shadow priest without Mind Flay.

Veiled Shadows - Rank 2/2
Decreases the cooldown of your Fade ability by 6 sec, and reduces the cooldown of your Shadowfiend ability by 2 minutes.
This is also an optional talent. If you want you can put the points somewhere else, but there isn’t really other good alternatives for them. I actually like this talent simply because I can use my fiend more often. Use it early and use it often.

Shadow Reach - Rank 2/2
Increases the range of your offensive Shadow spells by 20%.
More range is the better.

Shadow Weaving - Rank 3/3
Your Shadow damage spells have a 100% chance to increase the Shadow damage you deal by 2% for 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.
Another dps boosting talent.

Vampiric Embrace - Rank 1/1
Afflicts your target with Shadow energy that causes you to be healed for 15% and other party members to be healed for 3% of any Shadow spell damage you deal for 1 min.
Another signature shadow priest’s spell. Although its functionality has been nerfed and it is now a shadow of its former self, plus SW:D is no longer part of our rotation, I still found it extremely useful for your own survivability. Having this as part of your grinding rotation almost eliminates the need to heal/bandage yourself, even without PW:S.

Improved Vampiric Embrace - Rank 2/2
Increases the healing received from Vampiric Embrace by 67%.
I found the increase in self healing especially to be extremely useful. But I think this is one of the optional talents.

Focused Mind - Rank 3/3
Reduces the mana cost of your Mind Blast, Mind Control, Mind Flay and Mind Sear spells by 15%.
I like mana reduction talents, I gobble them up whenever I can find them.

Mind Melt - Rank 2/2
Increases the critical strike chance of your Mind Blast, Mind Flay and Mind Sear spells by 4%.
Now that MF can crit and we do 200% of damage when crit, crit has become one of sought after stat. I’m not sure that the 4% increase affects the additional damage from our dots (look at the last component of Shadowform if you’re not sure what I’m talking about).

Darkness - Rank 5/5
Increases your Shadow spell damage by 10%.
More dps.

Shadowform - Rank 1/1
Assume a Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage by 15%, reducing Physical damage done to you by 15% and threat generated by 30%. However, you may not cast Holy spells while in this form. Your Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague, and Vampiric Touch abilities deal increased percentage damage equal to your spell critical strike chance.
Remember what I said about MF? It’s the same thing here. But why wouldn’t you not want this? It is filled with plenty of goodness. The threat reduction component practically eliminates the need for shadow affinity. The increase in damage to our dots from spell crit rate makes us scaled better.

Shadow Power - Rank 5/5
Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Mind Blast, Mind Flay, and Shadow Word: Death spells by 100%.
This is what makes us able to deal 200% when crits.

Improved Shadowform - Rank 2/2
Your Fade ability now has a 100% chance to remove all movement impairing effects when used while in Shadowform, and reduces casting or channeling time lost when damaged by 70% when casting any Shadow spell while in Shadowform.
There are some debate to whether this is necessary. I personally like the 70% reduction time lost, even if it’s not that useful with the current form of MF. Still, no good alternative for not taking the talent if you want to go deep in shadow.

Misery - Rank 3/3
Your Shadow Word: Pain, Mind Flay and Vampiric Touch spells also increase the chance for harmful spells to hit by 3% lasting 24 sec, and increases the damage of your Mind Blast, Mind Flay and Mind Sear spells by an amount equal to 15% of your spell power.
This talent gives shadow priests one  of their few group utilities. But I am going out of limb to say that it’s a good utility. More importantly, however, the self component of this talent is what makes this a must have talent.

Vampiric Touch - Rank 1/1
Causes 850 Shadow damage over 15 sec to your target and causes up to 10 party or raid members to gain 0.25% of their maximum mana per second when you deal damage from Mind Blast.
Similar to VE, the group utility of this talent is a shadow of its former self. However, currently VT is our highest damaging dot. Also, it provides replenishment in which all shadow priest is expected to have.

Pain and Suffering - Rank 3/3
Your Mind Flay has a 100% chance to refresh the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain on the target, and reduces the damage you take from your own Shadow Word: Death by 30%.
I used to underestimate the need for putting 3 points in this talent, especially with my lack of use of SW:D. But I found many occasions where I could only fit one MF before SW:P expires. With 3 points in this talent, at least I’m ensured that I could refresh SW:P whenever I want it.

Twisted Faith - Rank 5/5
Increases your spell power by 10% of your total Spirit, and your damage done by your Mind Flay and Mind Blast is increased by 10% if your target is afflicted by your Shadow Word: Pain.
At the risk of sounding as a broken record, more dps is a good thing.

Dispersion - Rank 1/1
You disperse into pure Shadow energy, reducing all damage taken by 90%. You are unable to attack or cast spells, but you regenerate 6% mana every 1 sec for 6 sec. Dispersion can be cast while stunned, feared or silenced.
Dispersion saved me in several occasion. Dispersion is my emergency mana pot. I’ve learn to like it. It might not be the ideal talent for a dps tree, but since we are already this deep in the shadow tree, might as well grab 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.

Being a Jewelcrafter, reputation grinding is an integral part of E’s daily activities, especially considering that several of the popular gem cuts are only available from factions reward. Here is the list of Jewelcrafting recipes that can be obtained through the Wrath’s factions.

1. Design: Guardian’s Twilight Opal - 8exp/12stam - Argent Crusade Revered
2. Design: Reckless Huge Citrine - 7sp/6haste - Frenzyheart Tribe Friendly
3. Design: Jagged Forest Emerald - 8crit/12stam - Frenzyheart Tribe Revered
4. Design: Vivid Dark Jade - 6hit/9stam - The Oracles Friendly
5. Design: Sundered Forest Emerald - 8crit/3mp5 - The Oracles Revered
6. Design: Runed Scarlet Ruby - 19sp - Kirin Tor Exalted
7. Design: Deadly Huge Citrine - 6agi/6crit - Knights of the Ebon Blade Friendly
8. Design: Wicked Monarch Topaz - 16attack/8crit - Knights of the Ebon Blade Revered
9. Design: Glowing Twilight Opal - 9sp/12stam - Knights of the Ebon Blade Exalted
10. Design: Seer’s Dark Jade - 6int/6spi - The Kalu’ak Friendly
11. Design: Defender’s Shadow Crystal - 6parry/9stam - The Kalu’ak Honored
12. Design: Smooth Autumn’s Glow - 16crit - The Sons of Hodir Exalted
13. Design: The Glimmering Monarch Topaz - 8parry/8def - The Wyrmrest Accord Exalted

Pre-Wrath, I’ve come to rely on WoW Reputation Calculator to figure out E’s course of actions to hit the right standing with the factions. Unfortunately, this calculator has not yet been updated with the Wrath’s factions. But fortunately, I found another WoW reputation calculator from WoWJuju that seems to provide similar information for Wrath’s factions (the pre-wrath factions information are also available).

This reputation calculator lists all the dailies and repeatable quests that for each of the Wrath’s faction, which is great by itself to find out what are the dailies that are available. It will also tell you which quests that are available for you currently and quests that would be available as you reach a higher standing with the faction, and how many days it would take you to reach that standing.

With that said, I still found it annoying that the only “reliable” method in getting Kirin Tor’s reputation is by running dungeons. I wish they have some dailies (apart from the cooking daily) that you can do. Oh well…