How was your patch?
Overall for myself, it was an entertaining evening.
Priest:
I started off by hitting the mailbox with my priest, and reaping the rewards of my herb farming and glyph mass production with my priest, then hit the trainer. I bought dual spec, hit one side up Discipline and the other Shadow. Realise now that the talent preview is an interface option… so next time I login I need to respec my shadow tree as I just mooshed it together to try.
Ulduar:
I logged into my mage, talented up and with a few of the guildies hit up Ulduar. After the best part of an hour from scheduled start, everyone was setup and ready to go, we went over tactics, jumped in our vehicles and zoomed off to clear up some trash. This was awesome fun – I recommend everyone try it, even if your not going to take on the boss.
We sidled up to the boss, and with a rough draft of tactics went on in to see how it would play out.
Splat. 60% wipe. Not bad for a clueless first try.
Second time around he bugged and one of the Siege Engines “lagged out” for about 10 seconds whilst being pummeled. Wipe at 75%
Third try ended up being our last as… well… It broke. We went in, one of the vehicles was too close behind when it got targeted, got flattened, quick path to a 70% wipe, but it was a much cleaner fight.
The Crash:
At this point we were unable to re-enter the instance, and were stood outside with hundreds, if not THOUSANDS of other players. (All Choo-Chooing, Argh! The noise was frightening!) We decided to go gank Malygos since we had a powerful group – but it turned out that the instance servers were completely borked and nothing was running, so we called it there and went on our merry way.
Back to Glyphing I went. I still have money streaming in from Auction House sales, and so far I have gone from a balance of 1400 gold to 1700 Gold – and that’s AFTER buying dual spec and some training to max out new skills, so a good 1300 gold profit and counting.
Dual spec:
I only have one Dual specced character, and at the moment I don’t see any point in doing it any other way – and even then, I feel I may have wasted my money.
My priests Discipline abilities got a mojor boost – almost every ability is more powerful. Stackable devine Inspiration (each crit adds a bubble for 30% of the heal value, and I can stack them now up to a 10k Bubble!) cheaper faster and more powerful heals, targetable AOE heals as Discipline… Its looking good.
Shadow – I cant see me using this spec often at the moment. I pull about 1700 unbuffed DPS which I guess isn’t too bad considering im wearing like 2 items from heroics, 2 from Naxx 10 and the rest is quest rewards or level 78 craftables. When grinding Im more prone to AOE grind with Holy Nova – especially now its mana cost has been reduced!
Cant help but think Holy might have been a good secondary spec… but I have little desire to use Circle Of Healing – especially now I have improved AOE heal abilities on my priest – who wasn’t struggling before hand with AOE healing anyway… (49% healing on Loetheb with a pally and another disc priest – both better geared, whilst maintaining 3 bubbles on the tanky types to keep em standing… One death… That’s why Im not concerned with the group heal abilites of Disc.)
Summary:
Overall I am enjoying some of the features of the patch, and for a while, Ulduar will provide much entertainment. We are confident Flame Leviathan will go down in a couple of tries tonight – it’s a surprisingly simple fight if you break it down to individual tasks instead of trying to take the whole thing in. Basically Kite and DPS. Two people get launched to take out the turrets on the FL, and the choppers run around dropping tar in its path, and picking up the catapaulted people once they are done. No big rush at the moment, it should be one-shottable – it’s the next boss that will be the problem, from what I read – he is currently bugged.
-V
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Naxxramas Step 1: Anub'rekhan
Long time no post. With the release of Ulduar and the launch of patch 3.1 today, I figured instead of posting the usual mash of info you can get on just about any other wow blog... I would try my hand at some guides to Naxx bosses. Why? Because I was bored at work, thats why!
Anub’rekhan – First boss in Arachnid Quarter
Quirks:
Locust Swarm:
Every few minutes the boss will initiate a locust swarm. Everyone within 30 yards starts receiving heavy damage, and is unable to do anything but move, therefore, everyone but the tank must be clear of the boss as this goes off.
Crypt Fiend:
A crypt fiend will spawn during the locust swarms. These will be taken down ASAP.
Corpse Scarabs:
Periodically corpse scarabs will spawn from the corpses of the Crypt Fiends. They need taken down ASAP. Whilst individually they are not very tough and don’t hit very hard – they still disrupt casting and when enough of them get nibbling, they can quickly take down a soft target. They also spawn from the corpses of players as soon as they die, which often leads to an exponential wipe.
Main tanks job:
The boss is tanked in the doorway that he is standing in. Every couple of minutes he casts locust swarm – when he does this you must run to the doorway at the opposite side of the room, against the wall behind the ooze pit. Heroic: Boss moves faster so you need to be on the ball and start running quicker. Speed enhancements or an intervene target are useful for inexperienced kiters.
Off-Tank(s) job:
Crypt Fiends will spawn during the kite phases, they need to be tanked and nuked down ASAP. When no Crypt Fiend is around, the offtank guards the corpse of the crypt fiend and will attempt to tank any Corpse Scarabs that spawn off it. Heroic: The fight starts with 2 Crypt Fiends flanking the boss. These are pulled to the centre of the green circle and killed.
Healers jobs:
The healers will be allocated to either heal the MT or to raid heal/heal the off-tank(s). They will usually be stood with the ranged DPS although in some cases one may be positioned behind the pit of green goo for the main tank to Intervene (if a warrior) both are fairly easy jobs as long as the tank doesn’t kite too slowly, and the ranged space out to avoid being hit with the bosses spike attack. Heroic: As Normal but there will be multiple healers on the MT and stray corpse scarabs are more hazardous. If you get any on you – stand in the AOE that’s flying around so someone else peels the aggro off you.
Melee DPS:
Priority kill order: Crypt Fiend > Corpse Scarab > Anub’rekhan. The melee must stay clear of the boss during the locust swarms. As soon as the timer is up or your called out – retreat to the ranged group and prepare to fight adds. Melee will focus on the Crypt fiends whenever they spawn. Scarabs will generally be AOEd by the casters – but every little helps, especially for any strays.
Ranged DPS:
Same kill priority as the melee – they must also try to space out a bit as the boss does a spike trap AOE which hits anything in its path between the boss and the target, and anyone in the vicinity of the target. The spike hits quite hard and throws you into the air causing further fall damage. Excessive numbers of people being thrown into the air or hit at the wrong time has caused wipes as corpse scarabs erupt from anyone that dies, rapidly taking out the group.
Anub’rekhan – First boss in Arachnid Quarter
Quirks:
Locust Swarm:
Every few minutes the boss will initiate a locust swarm. Everyone within 30 yards starts receiving heavy damage, and is unable to do anything but move, therefore, everyone but the tank must be clear of the boss as this goes off.
Crypt Fiend:
A crypt fiend will spawn during the locust swarms. These will be taken down ASAP.
Corpse Scarabs:
Periodically corpse scarabs will spawn from the corpses of the Crypt Fiends. They need taken down ASAP. Whilst individually they are not very tough and don’t hit very hard – they still disrupt casting and when enough of them get nibbling, they can quickly take down a soft target. They also spawn from the corpses of players as soon as they die, which often leads to an exponential wipe.
Main tanks job:
The boss is tanked in the doorway that he is standing in. Every couple of minutes he casts locust swarm – when he does this you must run to the doorway at the opposite side of the room, against the wall behind the ooze pit. Heroic: Boss moves faster so you need to be on the ball and start running quicker. Speed enhancements or an intervene target are useful for inexperienced kiters.
Off-Tank(s) job:
Crypt Fiends will spawn during the kite phases, they need to be tanked and nuked down ASAP. When no Crypt Fiend is around, the offtank guards the corpse of the crypt fiend and will attempt to tank any Corpse Scarabs that spawn off it. Heroic: The fight starts with 2 Crypt Fiends flanking the boss. These are pulled to the centre of the green circle and killed.
Healers jobs:
The healers will be allocated to either heal the MT or to raid heal/heal the off-tank(s). They will usually be stood with the ranged DPS although in some cases one may be positioned behind the pit of green goo for the main tank to Intervene (if a warrior) both are fairly easy jobs as long as the tank doesn’t kite too slowly, and the ranged space out to avoid being hit with the bosses spike attack. Heroic: As Normal but there will be multiple healers on the MT and stray corpse scarabs are more hazardous. If you get any on you – stand in the AOE that’s flying around so someone else peels the aggro off you.
Melee DPS:
Priority kill order: Crypt Fiend > Corpse Scarab > Anub’rekhan. The melee must stay clear of the boss during the locust swarms. As soon as the timer is up or your called out – retreat to the ranged group and prepare to fight adds. Melee will focus on the Crypt fiends whenever they spawn. Scarabs will generally be AOEd by the casters – but every little helps, especially for any strays.
Ranged DPS:
Same kill priority as the melee – they must also try to space out a bit as the boss does a spike trap AOE which hits anything in its path between the boss and the target, and anyone in the vicinity of the target. The spike hits quite hard and throws you into the air causing further fall damage. Excessive numbers of people being thrown into the air or hit at the wrong time has caused wipes as corpse scarabs erupt from anyone that dies, rapidly taking out the group.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Rant of the week. Tier tokens.
Today, Im going to rant a bit about tier tokens.
I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with these lil’ buggers. Love to have em, hate the way blizzard seems to drop one that cant be used by our raid makeups.
Perhaps its raid composition, perhaps it’s the groups lumped into who can roll for each tier token – but most likely both.
Call it bad recruitment or raid makeup, but here is an example of one of our raids – last nights to be precise:
6 Death Knights (4 Blood, 2 Unholy)
5 Druids (2 Feral, 2 Boomkins, 1 Tree)
4 Rogues
1 Mage
3 Warriors (2 Prot, 1 Fury)
2 Shaman (Both Resto)
2 Paladins (1 Prot, 1 Holy)
1 Hunter
1 Priest (Holy)
It probably shows a decent distribution of the more popular classes in the game. DK, Druid and Rogue. We were lacking the sign ups to have a more varied group, so this is what we had to (quite successfully) roll with.
If you know the tier tokens you know exactly where this rant is heading…
3 Tier token types, 3 or 4 classes per token.
For some reason, the token that has 4 classes on rolls in Death Knights, Druids, Rogues and Mages. That’s 16/25 people in the group after the same tier tokens! In a more balanced raid group, this would not be a problem, but even in 10-mans we have this same distribution problem.
Whats worse, until a few of weeks ago we had no raiding Hunters, Paladins or Warlocks… and in the space of one week we seen 8 tier tokens drop. ALL CONQUEROR. (1 x 25 man OS, 2 x 10 man OS, 1x VOA and 2x 10man Naxx groups.)
I seriously wonder if it wasn’t a case of GM vengeance. Our guild leader put in a complaint after a couple of runs of seeing only these tokens drop when we didn’t have anyone that can use, and they just gave her the slopey shoulder “visit our forums!”. Whatever…
Anyway, I don’t know how other guilds raids are distributed but I think that they should consider splitting that “Of The Champion” (I think) tier token in two.
Its obvious DK’s in their overpowered state are going to be the most popular, and no raid group is ever going to get the perfect distribution of players unless they have 25 hand picked raiders in a raid guild and they’re always available. Druids seem to be everywhere just now, rogues were always popular purely because they are fun, and there are a number of mages about despite us seeming to have a defecit of raiding ones.
If its just us – then there are surely others in a similar position, even if it’s a different distribution of classes (say all hunters warlocks and paladins) in which case perhaps a more “class sensitive” drop rate would be appropriate. E.G if 50% of the raid is in token A’s roll range, 25% is in B’s and 25% is in C’s – then have that be the ratios in which the tokens drop… because having 100% on 8 items when theres 0% able to roll is retarded.
And yes… this is coming from someone who happens to have picked up most of his tier tokens almost first time every time they have dropped. (7.5 gloves + shoulders, seen the pants drop once and chest drop once.) So if you think im bitching cos Im not getting gear, thats not the case :p
On a lighter note… got a yummy chest piece off Heigan last night. Just hope the 7.5 chest is still an upgrade because its been an objective of mine to get the Full Frostfire set since the days of raiding Molten Core, and Ill cry if I have to roll over someone to downgrade into it :p.
I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with these lil’ buggers. Love to have em, hate the way blizzard seems to drop one that cant be used by our raid makeups.
Perhaps its raid composition, perhaps it’s the groups lumped into who can roll for each tier token – but most likely both.
Call it bad recruitment or raid makeup, but here is an example of one of our raids – last nights to be precise:
6 Death Knights (4 Blood, 2 Unholy)
5 Druids (2 Feral, 2 Boomkins, 1 Tree)
4 Rogues
1 Mage
3 Warriors (2 Prot, 1 Fury)
2 Shaman (Both Resto)
2 Paladins (1 Prot, 1 Holy)
1 Hunter
1 Priest (Holy)
It probably shows a decent distribution of the more popular classes in the game. DK, Druid and Rogue. We were lacking the sign ups to have a more varied group, so this is what we had to (quite successfully) roll with.
If you know the tier tokens you know exactly where this rant is heading…
3 Tier token types, 3 or 4 classes per token.
For some reason, the token that has 4 classes on rolls in Death Knights, Druids, Rogues and Mages. That’s 16/25 people in the group after the same tier tokens! In a more balanced raid group, this would not be a problem, but even in 10-mans we have this same distribution problem.
Whats worse, until a few of weeks ago we had no raiding Hunters, Paladins or Warlocks… and in the space of one week we seen 8 tier tokens drop. ALL CONQUEROR. (1 x 25 man OS, 2 x 10 man OS, 1x VOA and 2x 10man Naxx groups.)
I seriously wonder if it wasn’t a case of GM vengeance. Our guild leader put in a complaint after a couple of runs of seeing only these tokens drop when we didn’t have anyone that can use, and they just gave her the slopey shoulder “visit our forums!”. Whatever…
Anyway, I don’t know how other guilds raids are distributed but I think that they should consider splitting that “Of The Champion” (I think) tier token in two.
Its obvious DK’s in their overpowered state are going to be the most popular, and no raid group is ever going to get the perfect distribution of players unless they have 25 hand picked raiders in a raid guild and they’re always available. Druids seem to be everywhere just now, rogues were always popular purely because they are fun, and there are a number of mages about despite us seeming to have a defecit of raiding ones.
If its just us – then there are surely others in a similar position, even if it’s a different distribution of classes (say all hunters warlocks and paladins) in which case perhaps a more “class sensitive” drop rate would be appropriate. E.G if 50% of the raid is in token A’s roll range, 25% is in B’s and 25% is in C’s – then have that be the ratios in which the tokens drop… because having 100% on 8 items when theres 0% able to roll is retarded.
And yes… this is coming from someone who happens to have picked up most of his tier tokens almost first time every time they have dropped. (7.5 gloves + shoulders, seen the pants drop once and chest drop once.) So if you think im bitching cos Im not getting gear, thats not the case :p
On a lighter note… got a yummy chest piece off Heigan last night. Just hope the 7.5 chest is still an upgrade because its been an objective of mine to get the Full Frostfire set since the days of raiding Molten Core, and Ill cry if I have to roll over someone to downgrade into it :p.
-V
Monday, February 16, 2009
Dual speccing, good for mages?
So, I hear that training the ability to Dual-spec is going to cost in the region of 500-1000 Gold.
This sounds fair enough. For hybrid classes this is a damn good investment – especially if they plan to do a lot of solo or PVP work alongside their tanking or healing duties, but my concern is: is it worth it for a mage?
For myself, once I settle into a spec, I don’t tend to change unless there are major nerfs to a spec, or buffs to another that justify some experimentation. I think I have had half a dozen major respecs over the life of my mage. From Levelling in fire to frost at about 50 which I continued into raiding MC until TBC came out. Half way through outland I became Arcane, and when I started raiding I became arcane frost (40/0/21 spec I believe). I leveled as frost through Northrend then Went frostfire for raiding, changing to Arcane when the spec got buffed, and since then back to Fire.
If I done PVP I could take arcane as a spec for that, as it still has many powerful instant nukes – and my main spell for PVP always ends up being Arcane Missiles because players cant escape it…
For grinding mobs, frost is/was very powerful (at least until the Blizzard snare Nerf – not tried it since.)
I am sticking to fire or frostfire for raiding (I am mid decision on how to spec for the raids, but its going to be a fire/frost combination with either fireballs or frostfire as the primary nuke.)
If Dual speccing was introduced a month ago – I would have been a fool not to take it as I have spent a good 500g+ in the last week or two due to jumping about specs due to Blizzards flip-flopping with Arcane, to the point where its damage output is consistently lower than what I was originally doing with frostfire. /facepalm. Its been fun and educational but it mightily pissed me off.
I think for the time being my mage is a raid + farm junky. Fire or Frostfire is a viable soloing/grinding spec (quick nukes and good AOE ability due to empowering my blizzards.) aswell as the highest DPS spec I have access to.
For me… I don’t see me coughing up, at least not until I find an excuse to run with a second spec.
It is a different story for my priest however… a) she does inscription, b) I originally wanted to heal, but am not shadow for leveling and if I ever get her into raiding, it will likely be as a shadow priest. I will most likely be doing regular respecs to fill in the roles needed – and I have the ability to do it on the move. For her, I will definitely be coughing up – even if it ends up being holy or Discipline that I change between for different fights if I end up healing.
There is no argument that dual speccing definitely benefits hybrids more than anyone else (If a priest can be considered a hybrid) more than the pure classes, which feel severely nerfed right now I think. (Mage + rogue + warlock+hunter.) you have an alternative to your norm for grinding/raiding/pvp’ing, but that’s about it.
-V
This sounds fair enough. For hybrid classes this is a damn good investment – especially if they plan to do a lot of solo or PVP work alongside their tanking or healing duties, but my concern is: is it worth it for a mage?
For myself, once I settle into a spec, I don’t tend to change unless there are major nerfs to a spec, or buffs to another that justify some experimentation. I think I have had half a dozen major respecs over the life of my mage. From Levelling in fire to frost at about 50 which I continued into raiding MC until TBC came out. Half way through outland I became Arcane, and when I started raiding I became arcane frost (40/0/21 spec I believe). I leveled as frost through Northrend then Went frostfire for raiding, changing to Arcane when the spec got buffed, and since then back to Fire.
If I done PVP I could take arcane as a spec for that, as it still has many powerful instant nukes – and my main spell for PVP always ends up being Arcane Missiles because players cant escape it…
For grinding mobs, frost is/was very powerful (at least until the Blizzard snare Nerf – not tried it since.)
I am sticking to fire or frostfire for raiding (I am mid decision on how to spec for the raids, but its going to be a fire/frost combination with either fireballs or frostfire as the primary nuke.)
If Dual speccing was introduced a month ago – I would have been a fool not to take it as I have spent a good 500g+ in the last week or two due to jumping about specs due to Blizzards flip-flopping with Arcane, to the point where its damage output is consistently lower than what I was originally doing with frostfire. /facepalm. Its been fun and educational but it mightily pissed me off.
I think for the time being my mage is a raid + farm junky. Fire or Frostfire is a viable soloing/grinding spec (quick nukes and good AOE ability due to empowering my blizzards.) aswell as the highest DPS spec I have access to.
For me… I don’t see me coughing up, at least not until I find an excuse to run with a second spec.
It is a different story for my priest however… a) she does inscription, b) I originally wanted to heal, but am not shadow for leveling and if I ever get her into raiding, it will likely be as a shadow priest. I will most likely be doing regular respecs to fill in the roles needed – and I have the ability to do it on the move. For her, I will definitely be coughing up – even if it ends up being holy or Discipline that I change between for different fights if I end up healing.
There is no argument that dual speccing definitely benefits hybrids more than anyone else (If a priest can be considered a hybrid) more than the pure classes, which feel severely nerfed right now I think. (Mage + rogue + warlock+hunter.) you have an alternative to your norm for grinding/raiding/pvp’ing, but that’s about it.
-V
Friday, February 13, 2009
Dual specs incoming at last?
Im sure this info is all over the place now, but here is what info I have gathered from my fellow bloggers on dual specs. (Subject to change or wiping at any point in time, especially if it looks good.)
- Level 80 players only. (May change later.)
- Two specs only (May change later. Great for true hybrids that may want to tank, heal dps, PVP etc etc.)
- Respeccing will take place at a Lexicon of power (In citys or summoned by a scribe, much like Soul Wells or perverted wardrobes/summoning stones.)
- Your secondary spec will be saved, and you can view it at any point in time. (My interperetation of how this will work: what your current spec, glyphs and hotbar layout is will be saved as your alternative spec, for a quick change back later.)
- Glyphs will be displayed along with your talent tree now as they are tied.
- Glyphs will change along with your spec. (If saved)
- Hotbars will change along with your spec. (If saved)
- Gear wont be “saved” as such, but blizzard will be including its own version of Outfitter/Item rack which will allow you to quickly switch between saved gear sets.
- Hunters will get an ability to access stables remotely with a cooldown. (Primarily for when dual speccing into or out of Beast mastery to swap your exotic pets in and out.)
- Pets talent trees will reset every time you change spec, instead of it being remembered. An inconvenience, but as compensation pet respecs are free.
- And, for me: The biggest change to smile about – When doing your talent points – you need to “save” to apply the changes. Yey! No more 50G cock ups when you mis-click a talent you don’t want. (It will still happen, but you can review your talents before accepting)
The changes are more suited to hybrid classes, but everyone will benefit, be it a change in attack style, (for me, arcane or frostfire builds, or maybe frost for aoe grinding them shoveltusks or boosting in lower level instances.) for PVP or for a specific encounter.
It will take setting up, and some changes are again, something that should have been done at the launch of Vanilla WOW – not 4 years down the line, but overall – I think this will help us out a lot.
Damn. Now I really want to get a group of 5 druids going as a leveling group for fun :p can all hop between tanking, melee, casting or healing whenever we feel like it! Hehe. (Well, 4 druids and a rogue would be more flexible, but still!)
-V
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)