Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Vellums rock

I had sent my enchanter a crapton of vellums that I created while leveling Ahami's inscription, and promptly forgot about them.

Well, yesterday I was a bit too sick to do anything worthwhile on Ideale, so I hopped on the warlock and the mage to test them out in PVP and see which was more fun, but two level 18 clothies in quest gear in the most notorious twink bracket in WoW was ... not a smart idea.

So I hopped on my bank alt and grabbed them some AH greens to wear, then filled in the rest with their tailoring — nothing too fancy, just some basic, level-appropriate stuff. Then I hopped on Daj and scrolled a few minor enchants (again, not the standard twink enchants, just some +stam to bracers and stuff).

And then I hopped back on. I can't compete with the rogues with 3.2K health, but 800+ is better than 200+, so I can actually survive long enough to do some damage.

The warlock is a bit more fun at this level, but I think the mage will be more fun for soloing — it's starting to get boring with the 'lock. So I'll keep playing to 30 with both of them, but the mage might be the one who goes all the way, and the 'lock might end up semi-twinked at 39 until I have the cash and time to make her a full-out twink at 59 (like the druid). That's based on first impressions, though — it could still change.

Really, it's amazing how much more fun this bracket can be if it you're not getting one-shotted every time. And if you have an enchanter and some vellums, it's pretty damn cheap to do the enchants, too.

Monday, December 29, 2008

The alt thing

For a long time, I didn't get the alt thing. I could understand having more than one 70, but the idea of working on leveling more than one toon at a time just eluded me. I leveled my hunter to 70, and then, after I'd earned her a few pieces of PVP gear, explored Outland, done most of the quests to get her exalted with the five Horde factions, and maxed her mining and gotten close with her jewelcrafting, I returned to my shaman and leveled her up to 80 (basically, since Wrath came out just before I dinged 69).

And now that her herbalism is maxed, she's got gear just barely decent enough to heal heroics, and I've gotten bored with dailies, I should be leveling my hunter. And I am, a little here and there, veryvery slowly. And I am also leveling my mage and warlock and playing (but not really leveling) my death knight. I do want to sit down and focus on Ideale, and I really need to work on rep with Ahami, but I needed a break after the grind to 80, especially because I needed some time for the quests to freshen up, and having alt ADD has been a bit fun. It's getting old, though — I don't feel like I'm making any progress with any of my toons this way.

I will definitely focus on Ideale, but I kind of want to pick one other character to level to 80, to play when I'm just not feeling like spending another minute in Grizzly Hills or Strand of the Ancients. I only play my death knight with my priesty roommate, and that suits me fine; same with my survival hunter and my BFF. I want a healer in the 50-59 bracket, so the druid is out.

That leaves the mage or the warlock. The mage would be more logical — I'd be able to port people around for cash and so on, AOE farming would be kind of awesome, I could wait with Drek'thar until the Alliance attacked and then run around in circles spamming Arcane Explosion, etc.

But while I have not liked warlocks in the past, I am really taken with my current attempt, an undead 'lock. I tried the orc thing, then got a great character idea. Malisya's ... well, really crazy. As in not actually in touch with reality. And not really in a good way. I mean, she gets that the Forsaken have broken away from the Scourge and that they are supposedly working with the Horde, but she doesn't really care as long as she gets to kill stuff. And laugh about it. If I get her to Northrend, I don't know how she's going to do Wrathgate, because she'd totally just sit back and watch the whole thing, clapping gleefully, and not care who won.

I've always loved playing the chaotic evil types (even when I creep myself out with them sometimes), and I just keep coming back to play her, even though the DoT thing gets kind of frustrating sometimes. It's a really, really fun change from my other toons — Ideale is totally driven, but has a moral code and sticks to it even if it throws a wrench in her plans; Ahami is a healer first and foremost, who will kill when it is necessary without remorse, but really prefers to keep other people alive and let them do the killing; even Silang, who has no problem with doing what needs to be done even if it is technically evil (for example, the quest "A Special Surprise"), has regrets about it and prefers to act for the greater good when she can. Silang is my only red=dead character — the others mostly keep the PVP to the battlegrounds or defending Horde cities.

My original plan was to level both to 30 and then choose, but I'm getting back to my "I don't get the alt thing" mindset. I'd like to focus on one character at a time, and save the twink projects for breaks now and then. So while I level Ideale, I will be weighing warlock vs. mage.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Percula is amazing

No, really. I have no idea who Percula is, but I do know that this machinima is probably the best one I've ever seen. I think I've watched it about six times since someone posted it on the VeCo forums yesterday.


The Craft of War: BLIND from percula on Vimeo.

Makes me wish I had played my rogue to 80.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Death Knight PVP: First impressions

I ventured into Warsong Gulch on Silang last night. I've been pretty focused on getting Ahami to 80, then on getting her geared up enough to heal heroics first and maybe survive for a reasonable amount of time in the battlegrounds second (I lack resilience ... a lot), raising her rep with various factions, and then on playing Ideale (don't let the Armory fool you - she's one bubble from 72!). So really, the only time I've been playing my death knight was when I was rolling with my shadow priesty friend (we're trying to catch her up).

Last night, though, I was bored and really didn't feel like running dailies. Huntering sounded fun, but I really wanted to run some battlegrounds as DPS, and with Ide still 71, that just didn't seem like a fun idea.

And then I remembered that I have a 58 death knight. Now, I suck at melee (though apparently less than I thought), but I figured it would be fun. So I did three runs of Warsong Gulch (would have done more, but the second and third took roughly 45 minutes apiece, and I stayed because we had a really good group on both sides; it was the same group both times).

First off, death knights in PVP are a total blast. I did have some trouble with ranged classes — one pretty good frost mage kept tricking me into blowing Death Grip with Ice Nova, and then kiting me around. Icy Touch is about the only ranged thing you get that doesn't cost runic power, so staying in melee is important. Death Grip and Chains of Ice help with this.

Second, Death Grip is an incredible, incredible ability. Why? You are the ultimate flag runner protector (well, other than a priest or pally). Run along about 20 yards behind the flag runner, and when someone gets right on his ass, Death Grip, Chains of Ice, and either take him down or keep following the flag runner, depending on which seems more helpful at the time.

Defense is also awesome — just wait for someone to grab the flag, then Death Grip and melee them down.

Other things I noticed: Pestilence + Blood Boil = yay. I really ought to have used Mind Freeze on that mage, now that I'm thinking about it. Unholy is super fun for PVP, mostly because when you die, you self-rez for a short time as a ghoul. If you target someone in a group of Alliance (or Horde, if you roll with the other side), do the leapy thing into the middle, and explode yourself, it's really, really satisfying. Especially when a hunter on your side has dropped frost trap and is volleying the group already. I think we took out five people at once one time. (Of course, this is not so good when the three offense who ran into their flag room suddenly have to deal with the five folks running from the graveyard. *facepalm*)

I can already see how some of these would be applied in Arathi Basin and Eye of the Storm. (Death Grip is seriously one of the coolest PVP talents ever; it interrupts, it slows people down/removes their progress, etc. The Gargoyle is pretty handy, too.) I think I'm going to have to actually run Alterac Valley to get a feel for DK PVP there — it just plays so differently.

Still, for WSG I think I did okay — I topped or came close on the damage meters, protected the flag runner on a few runs, and killed the other side's flag carrier several times (although I am so slow on clicking the flag back — I play defense almost always in WSG and I think I've had a total of, like, four flag returns across all my characters because I'm just too slow). Also got the Not So Fast achievement! I must not have done too bad, because it got where every time I was on defense, they would run in and all unload on me first. So either they thought I was dangerous enough to deal with ASAP, or I'm an easy mark (the latter is probably more likely, since I really am bad at melee).

It's also nice to see AFKers forced to play. This orc shaman was standing at the graveyard for most of the first battle, and kept getting reported. Finally he got booted from the round. When we all got in the second round, he was there again, and we were like, "Oh, great, 9-man again." And then he had a flag carry and three defends, and came in third on the damage meter, and was like, "Hey, that was an awesome match!." Isn't it way more fun when you actually participate? You get more honor that way, too.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Rethinking blogging!

When I started this blog, I was pretty much a total noob. I hated every class but hunter and maybe shaman, the only pets I liked were cats and owls, and I thought Arathi Basin was the absolute best thing ever. About the only thing that hasn't changed since May is my adoration of battleground PVP.

It's about time I found a niche with blogging, so I sat down and brainstormed some ideas for future blog entries, and noticed a theme:

- Battleground PVP; how have the changes with the expansion changed this? Gear changes/siege weapons/does Wintergrasp count as world or battleground PVP? New strategies.

- Pet reviews; would need an open pet slot. Instead of ranking pets, focus on what each pet is good for (PVP, PVE, soloing)/how to maximize pet skills/pros and cons of each class/etc.

- World PVP; strats for city bosses, organizing events, using old world PVP objectives to start trouble (EPL, Silithus)

- Strengths of each class for PVP, cons; what are tricks to beat each class? What are must-know skills you should have if you want to PVP as X? (i.e., hunters should know how to kite, when to use traps/big red pet/whatever, etc.)

- Roleplaying; name choices? success in organizing RP events lies in server's interests

- Twinking; gear changes (bind to account/heirloom gear), stat changes. How has inscription changed twinking (vellums make enchants easier)? Profession choices for twinks; Sidenote: ethics of twinking, why to twink, why low-level twinking sucks

- More on gear without arenas; what pieces to look for, how to make up for hit to resilience/stam

And so on. Note the common theme there? It's not hunters or kitties (although the kitties are still my favorite).

Do I refocus this blog to be more large-scale PVP oriented? (I still don't really intend to do arena.) Do I start fresh* with a new blog? And most importantly, what should my new name be!?

*I do think I'll be moving to Wordpress either way; I am less and less fond of Blogger as time goes on. Wordpress has cooler themes, blog stats tools, and I just like it better anyway. Plus I keep ending up at Blogspit.com by accident.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

WTB dual specs please

I think too much like a PVPer.

My 13/0/58 spec? Well, the resto part is PVE — I sort of copied from a couple of other shamans on VeCo to get an idea of where points should go. But I finally went to see where most PVE'rs were putting their points in enhancement, and a lightbulb went off — they're aiming for more mana and more mana regen. *facepalm* Seriously, I'm very new to this PVE thing.

I've been thinking like a PVPer. My points in Enhancement, when Ahami was 0/13/58, were aiming for survivability (and instant ghost wolf for flag carrying purposes!). I had also spent points in resto to cut down healing pushbacks, reduce stun/fear durations, and so on. In PVP, if you run out of mana, you can just run back from the brawl, drink, and run back in (in AV), or fights generally end before you go out of mana everywhere else (either because you killed the other players or you got killed yourself, in which case you rez with full health and mana anyway).

I still do a lot of soloing, so I don't think I will be switching my spec just yet unless I notice a problem with my mana pool in heroics, but when dual speccing comes out, I think I will be switching to a cookie cutter resto/enh PVE spec and doing a 20/0/51 PVP spec.

On that note, I healed my first heroic yesterday. We had one partial wipe (the tank and I died, but held on long enough that the DPS could finish the boss off), but it went pretty well, and I really didn't have many mana issues. I do really need to look at healer addons again (I HATE Healbot), because my healing was a little too slow. There were a couple of scary moments where I almost lost the tank because I was trying to heal one of the DPSers, and a couple moments where I did lose a DPSer because the tank was taking enough damage that I knew I wouldn't be able to heal the mage and then switch back to her in time. Definitely harder to shaman-heal when there are only two melee folks.

But I think it went well, and I think it will go a little better next time. And I got Limb Regeneration Bracers! Finally something with haste on it! Just need to get the spellpower enchant for them now.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Rethinking twinking

I had originally planned to make a pair of AV twinks, one survival hunter and one elemental shaman.

But since I now have an elemental shaman Alliance side (who will be going resto later), I have to say I'm just not really into elemental spec at all. And while I am still leveling another two hunters for fun, I want the Conqueror title for Ideale and I don't think I'll be PVPing much on the other two until she gets it. (Ditto for Ahami, actually.)

I've also been thinking that if I am going to make twinks, I should make them in classes I haven't played yet, for two reasons: 1. I can learn their weaknesses and then exploit them on my other toons; 2. when Blizz finally does start giving XP for battleground PVP like they keep saying they will and my twinks inevitably level, do I really want, like, six level 80 hunters and shamans? Plus, while I don't like any of the other classes enough to make them my main characters, I am finding that in short bursts — an hour or two here and there — they can be a whole lot of fun.

So my current plans have changed. Onashne is sitting pretty at level 30, and I have my troll magey and now an orc warlock* who I have been playing here and there for a break from Northrend. I will get some friends to run me through stuff so I can gear them for the 30-39 bracket, and there they will stay until Ahami, Ideale and Silang are all nice and leveled and maybe even geared a bit, and then I will see where to go from there. Maybe I'll level them for AV; maybe I'll leave them alone until the PVP XP starts, I don't know.

I am guessing that the title of this blog is now somewhat misleading, since hunters aren't my whole focus anymore (though I'm starting to get there with Ideale now in action again!). :-/

*I liked the human storyline and I really do want to try warlock PVP, so I am trying an orc, because maybe the secretive thing will make it more fun.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Pet choices

Now that I have started leveling Ideale — with much frustration, I might add; after not having played her, literally, for a month, I am a borderline huntard mostly because I keep forgetting where I put things. "I have aggro! I have aggro! Oh yeah, Intimidation! ... Why did I just Arcane Shot?" And also ammo. Shamans do not have ammo, nor do they need it. So I'm sitting there shooting, shooting, shooting, and suddenly I am getting the out of ammo message and have to melee my way back out of Baleheim. *facepalm* Luckily, I think I got all the huntard out of my system by the time I dinged 71.

Where was I? Oh yeah.

Now that I have started leveling Ideale, I've had to face facts. With the exception of my wasp, none of my pet choices are all that awesome for PVP, which is where I intend to spend all of my non-farming time on Ideale. Because really, I am not so good at PVE as DPS. And I don't know if it is a spec problem or I have the cower bug going on or what, but pre-WotLK Cinnamon had no problem holding aggro, and post-WotLK I am pulling aggro even though my DPS has tanked and even using Aspect of the Viper, thus tanking my DPS even more. (The DPS thing is a spec problem, I think — my DPS in Aspect of the Hawk is a bit lower than it used to be in Aspect of the Viper back pre-Wrath, and I don't think it's due to nerfs. I went with a hybrid spec for PVP, and because I am a defensive player went for Readiness, survivability and other tricks rather than massive DPS; this is not a leveling spec at all.)

I desperately MUST tame Loque. I have wanted to tame this cat since the moment I laid eyes on the screenshot at Mania's blog, and after having done the Har'koa quests on Ahami, I want him even more desperately. I've never wanted to tame a pet so badly, ever. I would also very much like a windserpent for PVP, and if I keep having aggro problems with Cinnamon, I would really like to tame a rhino for soloing with.

That's two pets, or maybe three. I have one remaining stable slot.

I am keeping Cinnamon, of course, and I'm already super-attached to my firefly, RIzal, even though he's still not 70. (I was leveling him through Alterac Valley ...) Plus, the wasp poison is absolutely wonderful for PVP. Not a lot of damage, but it really helps with kiting, and annoys the crap out of paladins. And there are so few wasp hunters!

I love Saffron a lot, but having two cats (hopefully soon to be three) is silly, especially since I will be respeccing full BM and the extra pet talent points make Saffy's spec and Cinnamon's incredibly similar. But she's been with me since the Badlands, and I am such a cat person.

And Gutripper — I was so excited when I managed to solo-tame her, and she's been so much fun as a pet, but after the patch, when Screech changed to Snatch, I really don't pull her out much. I don't like to micromanage a pet's abilities, but Snatch very much needs a hunter to micromanage it, or you have your owl grabbing a mage's weapon and then on CD for the rogue or warrior. It's fun to use — they always kind of pause when they lose their weapons, like "WTF???" — but not that fun. But even though I have not had her very long in comparison to my cats, I am attached to her.

So which do I choose to keep? And which do I let go? And more importantly, can I bring myself to follow through, and will I be able to go through it a second time if I can't figure out my aggro issues and need to tame a rhino, too?

I think this is why I've put off leveling Ideale so long (after I'd intended to level them together) — I knew this was coming, and I really don't want to deal with it.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Strand of the Ancients = Yay!

The Strand is crazy. I ran it twice — the first time, I had no idea what the hell was going on but we won, and the second time I had figured it out but my team decided we would rather let the Alliance bottleneck us than actually use strategery, so we got curbstomped.

So, if you are doing SotA, please, for the love of Har'koa the Leopard Goddess (I think she's Ahami's new patron because Har'koa kicks ass), take out both gates instead of just throwing yourself through one gate, one siege tank at a time, right into the enemy's defense. Remember, defense has the advantage anyway — if you split them up, then you have a much better chance of making up for that imbalance.

Pretty sure SotA is going to be one of the battlegrounds I love, though. It's a lot of fun, even though I don't really have time to heal it — I'll probably spend more time in there on Ide or Silang, because it's definitely a DPSer's dream match.

I tried to do Wintergrasp, but there were no Alliance in the zone, so I was sad.

So I went to my old pal, Alterac Valley, for a quick run before I had to log, and we swept the place, getting the Everything Counts achievement. Awesome DK tank on Vann, too.

And then, after determining that I really need more resilience and testing the waters in the Strand, I went and spent 400g on training. So I guess we all know what my priorities are.

(Sadly, in the tradition I started with Ideale, I forgot to pay attention to the XP bar entirely and thus missed screen-capping the moment it disappeared.)

P.S. Lava Burst and Hex are really taking away most of my motivation to level a mage.

EDIT: On a side note, I really need to pick a name to go with for this blog. I was using MW at first (mayhemwench was an old chat handle back in the day), but I really don't use that for anything but an e-mail address anymore. Then I went with Siya ("that person") until I discovered that there is another WoW blogger who has been around a lot longer named Siha. So now I'm using KC, because Kitty Collector is just a bit too long for my lazy ass to type, but I am not big on the initials thing. I don't want to use Ahami or Ideale as my handle — that would just be kind of weird, I think.

Ideas?

Dear Alchemist Finkelstein

You suck. A lot.

Love,
Ahami

***

Dear hunters,

Loque is a dude. He is the mate of Har'koa, the leopard goddess. Please take note of this.

Love,
The Kitty Collector

Thursday, December 11, 2008

SO CLOSE

I am a little over a third of the way through 79.

And after healing a guild group at the Amphitheater of Anguish (watched an Alliance group with a hunter, then ran our own group with the hunter class leader in it), I desperately want to play on Ideale, but I'm so. Close. To 80. Can't wait to get there, and then I can go back to tag-teaming between the two again.

Also I want to PVP. I WANT TO PVP NOW. NOW PLZ.

But if I PVP now, then I will do that for the next 2-3 weeks and be sitting at 79 the whole time. And I want at least one 80 before I start getting sidetracked so I can actually do more stuff with the guild.

Don't get me wrong. I adore playing Ahami and have been having a BLAST the past month with all the grouping and healing and exploring and stuff I've been doing. I still fully intend to keep her as my main, I love playing her so much.

But oh, it will be really nice to be able to kill things at a decent speed again, without having to stop and drink every other mob. And it'll be fun to run with Cinnamon again (lame but true, I miss my pixelcat).

P.S. The Venture Co. realm is literally the most awesome realm in WoW. Someone started cracking child molestation jokes in Zul'Drak today, and half the people in the zone jumped down their throat over it, and the person apologized. If I hadn't been there, I'd never have believed it, but it was really kind of cool. I <3 VeCo.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

True cat stories: Merry Treemas

I think I mentioned that Sparrow loves soft things and has stolen several stuffed toys from me because of this. If not ... Sparrow loves soft things and has stolen several stuffed toys from me because of it.

Her favorite is a terrycloth dollar store Kitten that has seen much better days, with stiff competition from Chococat and Softbunny, a soft blue bunny my roommate bought her. She carries them around from room to room throughout the day, lines them all up at the door around the time I get home from work, plays with them as if they were real cats, and is generally adorable as hell.

Sparrow also loves Christmas trees. She was much tinier her first Christmas, and spent most of the holiday launching herself at us from about halfway up the tree. Luckily, she also weighed about three pounds, and the tree never ate it.

That was last year. Many ornaments died. She doesn't climb the tree anymore, though — she just hides underneath it.

This year's Christmas tree got put up Monday night, and the roommates and I all went out for something after that. When we got home and flicked on the light, there was Sparrow laying behind the tree, content and purring. On her right was Chococat, on her left was Softbunny, and directly across from her was Kitten, all facing the tree.

(And yes, if I ask her where one of them is, she will go find it and occasionally carry it back to me, mewing the whole time. Which is hilarious when it's Chococat, because she's smaller than the toy is.)

Resto shaman item enhancements

Exelus at Shamantics posted this awesome list of rep rewards from each Northrend faction and which items/enchants could be helpful to which tree.

If you are an inscriber, ditch the Sons of Hodir shoulder enchant, because Master's Inscription of the Crag is more awesome.

There are also some decent enchants out there if you are lacking in the resilience for PVP. You might take a hit in mana regen in exchange.

Enchants/enhancements for the resto shaman:
Head: Arcanum of Blissful Mending (Wyrmrest Accord - Revered) or ; PVP Arcanum of Dominance (40 Stone Keeper's Shards, purchased in Wintergrasp)

Shoulders: Master's Inscription of the Crag (Inscription 400; Scribes only) or Greater Inscription of the Crag (Sons of Hodir - Exalted; Honored gives you access to the Lesser version); PVP Inscription of Dominance adds resil, but the hit in spell power and mp5 probably makes it not worth it.

Chest: Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats (Enchanting 440; 15x Infinite Dust, 4x Abyss Crystal) or Enchant Chest - Greater Mana Restoration (Enchanting 420; 20x Infinite Dust, 8x Greater Cosmic Essence)

Legs: I may be wrong, but you seem to be able to buy and use Sapphire Spellthread even if you are not a tailor.

Wrist: Enchant Bracers - Superior Spellpower (Enchanting 440; 24x Infinite Dust, 16x Greater Cosmic Essence, 2x Abyss Crystal), Enchant Bracers - Greater Spellpower (Enchanting 395; 8x Infinite Dust, 4x Greater Cosmic Essence) or Enchant Bracers - Greater Stats (Enchanting 400; 16x Infinite Dust, 3x Greater Cosmic Essence)

Hands: Enchant Gloves - Exceptional Spellpower (Enchanting 360; 4x Infinite Dust, 1x Lesser Cosmic Essence)

Feet: Enchant Boots - Greater Vitality (Enchanting 405; 14x Infinite Dust, 4x Greater Cosmic Essence)

Waist: Eternal Belt Buckle, of course.

Weapon: Enchant Weapon - Mighty Spellpower (Enchanting 435; 40x Infinite Dust, 20x Greater Cosmic Essence, 6x Abyss Crystal) or Enchant Weapon - Exceptional Spellpower (Enchanting 395; 10x Infinite Dust, 2x Greater Cosmic Essence)

Shield: Enchant Shield - Greater Intellect (12x Infinite Dust)

Rings: Enchant Ring - Greater Spellpower (Enchanting 400; Enchanters only)

I'm really not finding anything else other than armor kits, which seem to be fairly useless for casters aside from the +stam. Am I missing something?

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

The Great Hunter Nerf?

Honestly, I haven't even played my hunter much yet, and I saw it coming a mile away. We were already way OP for PVE, and Echoes of Doom just added to that.

That said, my spec will be changing pretty immediately — no point in keeping Readiness at the expense of the extra pet talent points if it doesn't effect BW/TBW. And some of the changes (I'm thinking mainly Deterrence and Kill Shot) will actually buff us slightly for PVP. In fact, I might retry BM/SV spec — the change to Improved Tracking would be nice in PVP. I've kind of been examining the spec I used last time and I think I see why my DPS dropped so drastically — will need to work on my +agi, though, if I do this.

And the Growl fix will really help with soloing. I wasn't having too many problems for the half-level I've done in Howling Fjord on Ide, but it was a bit more of a pain to manage my threat. Since I farm the stupid way (one mob at a time), this will make soloing much less stressful on my hunter.

The point being, for raiding hunters, I do sympathize, but I'm really not all that upset about these changes. Except Volley. I wanted to PVP with awesome Volley some more before it got nerfed.

Halfway through 78 on Ahami, and about to have a massive gear upgrade in the next day or two thanks to guild leatherworkers who are on top of the recipes, so Ide should be getting play time in the next few weeks. Which means I'll actually be posting about huntering!

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Wishlist: PVE gear for the almost 80 resto shaman

With tomorrow and Tuesday off, I should be hitting 80 by the weekend at the latest, so I am starting to put together a little wishlist of gear from factions and the basic (non-heroic) 77-80 dungeons for PVE purposes. I really do want to give this PVE thing a real go — it's much more fun as a healer than DPS, and now that I'm finally starting to feel like part of my guild (they're awesome, it just takes me a long time to feel comfortable in new groups, honestly — I like to think I hide it well but I am excruciatingly shy in real life), running instances is much more fun.

I'm sure I will eventually be doing heroics, and since the guild has already started 10-man Naxx (and cleared a couple of wings, I think!) with a bunch of extras, I will hopefully be able to tag along on the occasional raid despite my schedule. But at the moment I don't have the gear for either and need to learn the instances a bit more thoroughly anyway, so.

Anyway, here's what I am aiming for:

- The Stormhide set (Crafted - Leatherworking) is actually better than most of the current items I have access to via PVE for the chest, feet, waist and wrist slots, at least until I hit 80 and start doing heroics.

- Hands: Gauntlets of Dark Conversion (Culling of Stratholme)

- Head: I have a few choices here. My best bets might be either the Hollow Geode Helm (Halls of Stone) or the Battle Mender's Helm (Argent Crusade - Revered), depending on my other gear. But the Sharkjaw Cap (Oracles - Revered) or Nightshock Hood (Crafted - Leatherworking) would be okay short-term choices, too.

- Legs: Kilt of Molten Golems (Halls of Lightning). And such an awesome name, too! Second choice would be the Scavenged Feather Leggings from the Frenzyheart, but Ahami doesn't care for those wolvar much and there are things I want from the Oracles first anyway.

- Shoulders: The Epaulets of Market Row (BOE drop from Culling of Stratholme) are just a titch better than the Stormhide shoulders.

- Cloak: There is a very, very nice purple BOE cloak made by tailors that I very, very much want - Wispcloak. However, it will be quite some time before I can gather the mats for it. In the meantime, the Shroud of Dedicated Research (Kirin Tor - Honored) and Shroud of Resurrection (Utgarde Pinnacle) aren't bad.

- Shield: Warsong Stormshield (Horde Expedition - Revered), which I can pick up right now. The Alliance equivalent is Lordaeron's Resolve (Alliance Vanguard - Revered).

- Neck: Chain of Fiery Orbs (Halls of Stone) would be good enough for now — I will be leveling Ide's mining and jewelcrafting soon enough.

- Finger: None of them thrill me. I'll just pick up whatever drops that looks okay and replace as I level Ide's jewelcrafting.

- Trinkets: Soul Preserver (Culling of Stratholme); not sure what to put in the second slot. Maybe Badge of the Infiltrator for now. I could try for Darkmoon Card: Illusion. There are some engineering trinkets that look nice, but I won't be leveling engineering until Ide's mining and jewelcrafting is at 450 and Silang is to Northrend to pick flowers, if at all.

- Totem: Totem of the Bay (Grizzly Hills vendors, requires Venture Co. tokens) would be nice, especially for PVP, when I basically spam Chain Heal. Savage Gladiator's Totem of the Third Wind (PVP, requires honor and arena points, no rating) might mean I'll have to suck it up and dance in arena a few times, because it might be better for some 5-mans when I'm not chain healing.

I will worry about weapons another day, since this is already tl;dr.

Spirit Kitty

After seeing all the jerks in Sholazar gloating about killing Loque, and all the hunters pissed about it, and all of the horror stories on BRK's blog about people who finally, finally see the cat only to have it snatched from under them ...

I am totally taming the spirit kitty. I'll get a windserpent on one of my other hunters. That same little stubborn streak that has caused me to level Ahami from 10 to 77 (halfway to 78!) as straight resto has been activated, and as soon as Ideale is 76, I will probably be spending most of my time in game camping the spawn point for Loque.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Gearing for the battlegrounds at 80

With 3.5 levels to go before I hit 80, I figured it was time to start looking at options for world and battleground PVP. Unlike the previous expansion, where you could buy the basic blue resilience set from various factions upon hitting 70, there are, as far as I have been able to tell, no faction-sold PVP sets for 80. So where do you get gear?

Well, there are a few options.

Option 1: Become an Arena Junkie
If you are into arena, then you are pretty well set — all you need for the blue Savage Gladiator set is arena points and honor, and if you manage to top a 1550 rating, you can get the mid-rate Hateful Gladiator epic set. [Note: I linked to the plate chestpiece for each set, since the links for the full sets seem to be sort of busted. Just search for "Savage Gladiator" or "Hateful Gladiator" to find the appropriate set pieces for your class.]

According to WoWHead, the blue set will also be available with Emblems of Heroism, gained from heroic 5-mans and 10-man raids; you can purchase the purple set with Emblems of Valor, gained from 25-man raids. That's all I know about arena gear, though, since I really don't intend to do it.

Option 2: That PVE Thing
As mentioned above, you can earn Emblems of Heroism and Emblems of Valor from completing PVE objectives, and use these to purchase arena gear. Why you would do that rather than purchase PVE gear, I don't know, at least right now. I could see this happening later when you are overgeared for everything and have 82 of the things, but now? That's kind of shafting your guild, if you are all working on the content, but you're not working on gearing for it. Unless you are just PUGing heroics to get them, but why would you do that to yourself?

Anyway, this is not the only way to get geared. See, in very general and oversimplified terms, PVP gear is itemized around survival first and burst damage output second, whereas PVE gear is itemized more around doing continuous damage/mana regen and efficiency/lasting power/etc. (Or so it seems to me, based on the stats for comparable pieces of both.)

If you were really dead-set against arena and enjoy that PVE thing, you could probably build a "glass cannon" PVP set around PVE gear. Use PVE gear, gem and enchant with resilience in mind, or supplement with the off-set pieces (which can be purchased with honor points; cannot find if they require an arena rating to purchase, but I'm pretty sure at least the blues will not). Basically, try to mitigate the loss of stamina and resilience with a significant increase in MQoSDPS, ranged or otherwise, or lots of healing power and staying power. (If you're a good healer and you're not in a battleground with a bunch of schmucks, the only way you're going to die is if you get zerged or some sneaky warlock DoTs the crap out of you before anyone can figure out where they are, and you'd probably die anyway in that case, after you've finished the battleground returned to Dalaran, and wandered off to fish in the sewers or something.)

If you do this, of course, be sure you aren't gimping yourself in PVE — that's unfair to the groups you run with. Use off-set pieces, pieces for slots you've upgraded, vendor gear, etc.

Option 3: Wintergrasp PVP and that Wintergrasp PVE thing
Stone Keeper's Shards. You can get them in a couple of ways: By completing the daily quests in Wintergrasp, or as boss drops when your faction controls Wintergrasp only. Stone Keeper's Shards can be used to buy some VERY nice gear, like the Prized Beastmaster's Mantle (extra nice because it binds to the account and scales with level). Or enchants or gems like the Inscription of Dominance or Trenchant Earthshatter Diamond. Or you can just blow them on fun stuff, like the Reins of the Black War Mammoth, and then ride around Dragonblight yelling, "MAAAAAAAMMOOOOOOTTTTTHHHH!"

Ahami and Ideale will be spending quite a lot of time in Wintergrasp, I can tell.

Plus, if you do the PVE dungeon in Wintergrasp (available only when your faction controls it), the bosses drop arena gear of various levels. And the season hasn't even started yet!

Option 4: Craft Craft Revolution
Blizz included crafting recipes in the expansion that can be used to create a full set of basic arena gear. This gear is not great — in fact, if you have S4, S3, and maybe even S2, you might want to very carefully weigh which pieces you replace — which stats are you shaky on? Will a few pieces of the Stormhide set fix that?

If you had a fresh 70 who you chose to level to 80, then the set is a very good starter set, to be supplemented with gear obtained in other ways. But if you had a 70 who was already decently geared for PVP, then weigh your choices. The nice (well, sort of) part about these sets is that they don't have a set bonus, so you can replace pieces as you go without worrying about maintaining a certain number.

Certain specs of certain classes (holy paladins and enhancement shamans, for example) might be better off looking elsewhere for PVP gear.

That said, here are the sets you can get:
Blacksmithing: Blacksmithing sets seem to be taught by trainers. Blacksmiths can make the Ornate Saronite and Savage Saronite sets.
Leatherworking: Leatherworking patterns can be purchased in exchange for pieces of Heavy Borean Leather. If you have a skinner, you might offer to supply your leatherworker if they purchase the patterns for the pieces you need. Leatherworkers can make the Stormhide, Swiftarrow, Eviscerator's, and Overcast sets.
Tailoring: Like blacksmithing, the tailoring set seem to be simply taught by the trainers. Tailors can make the Frostsavage set. As far as I can tell, this is the only tailoring set available.

Are there better ways to gear up for WotLK PVP? Probably. But with avoiding arena as much as possible in mind, this is what I've come up with to gear my peeps. (Though I might give arena a go for a couple of rounds — the new arena maps and the rebalancing is supposed to have made it somewhat closer to fun. Don't really want to commit to something I don't have a schedule for and would just be half-assing, though.)

True Cat Stories: OH GOD GET IT OFF

Back when I lived in Queens, I used to hang out in the parks all the time because I missed living in the country and they were about as close as you could get.

So one day, I was in Central Park and this guy comes walking down a path with this absolutely gorgeous Himalayan cat on a leash. It was possibly the yuppiest thing I've ever seen, but also the most awesome — this can was completely unperturbed by bikers, roller bladers, and people walking their dogs, and he even let me pet her (yes, I asked!).

Ditto, my old kitty, used to just follow me along and never needed a leash, but when Sparrow was a kitten, she had a propensity to wander away to chase after bugs and stuff, and living in town, I was afraid she'd run into the street or something, so I went out and bought myself a cat leash. After the first time she wore it, it never bothered her at all, and now when she hears me taking it out of the basket, she comes running from wherever she is in the apartment to go for a walk.

Klio, on the other hand, was not all that fond of the outdoors and never needed her leash — which is good, because she's one of those cats who acts as though the leash is crushing them. (She did the same thing with her collar for a week.)

Only recently, Klio has decided that if Sparrow gets to go outside, then she should go outside, too. The first couple of times she was great. She was nervous, so she stuck to my side like glue.

Once she got used to it, it was a nightmare. See, Klio is a very playful cat, and her favorite thing in the world (Sparrow's too, actually) is to be chased. And she decided that "Time to go in" meant "Time to play chase!" and started hiding under bushes, running up trees, coming a fingertip's distance away and then running in circles around me, and so on, and for a chubby little cat she is EXTREMELY FAST.

Last time we went out, then, I put the harness and leash on her. And she stayed the entire time at the foot of the stairs (which I had to carry her down), yowling like I was killing her and pressed flat to the ground.

So when we got back inside, I left the harness on her. She'll get used to it, right? I figured I'd feed them wet food, and by the time she was done eating, she'd have forgotten it.

No dice. I carried her to the food, plopped her down inches away, and went to check my e-mail. Three or four minutes later, she started yowling again, and I went to check, and found out why she was crying. Sparrow had taken advantage of Klio's apparent inability to move the two inches to her food dish and was wolfing down Klio's treat in addition to her own. *facepalm*

So the harness is off for now, and I am at a loss as far as figuring this out. Klio desperately wants to go outside — to the point where she tries to sneak out when I am coming home from work or bringing Spar back in — but I cannot trust her off the leash and she is immobile and loud on the leash. What to do?

Friday, December 5, 2008

Clearcasting

With the itemization change that led to +spell and +heal being something like the same thing (or whatever, I don't get math), I decided to shoot for a few points in the elemental tree rather than the enhancement. I figured that then I could use essentially the same gear if I got stuck DPSing for some reason, and still do a decent amount of damage. (Don't use my current spec as a guide for anything. I just stuck points in random crap until I got what I wanted in both resto and elem. I'll shell out the gold at 80 for a real spec.)

Let me just say right now, two things have made me extremely glad I did this: Lava Burst and Clearcasting.

Lava Burst is the shit, and with the points in that talent that adds to your crit and damage for Lava Burst and fire totems, I can actually burn down mobs at something resembling a normal leveling speed now. I went from 74 to 75 faster than any level since the 30s, and I'm already halfway through 76. When I put Flame Shock up first for the Lava Burst autocrit, I'm critting for 2400-2800. I think that's pretty good for a shoddily-geared resto shaman at 76, right?

And the wonderful thing about the autocrit is that it procs Clearcasting. Clearcasting is AWESOME — it basically cuts the mana cost of any two damage or healing spells by 40 percent every time it procs, meaning that in the rotation (haha, like I actually plan these things out) I am using while soloing, a good two-thirds of my spells are reduced price. I played for two hours yesterday morning and had to drink once. ONCE. And then I played for two more hours last night, a bit more intensively, and am down just four more honeymint teas.

Let me be a bit more clear: Before I got Clearcasting, I was going through 2-3 stacks of drinks every time I played and it took me ages to kill anything, but with the elem sub-spec, I'm killing things much more quickly and it's costing me much less mana.

While I do plan to go something like 13/0/58 at 80 while I relearn the battlegrounds/learn Strand of the Ancients and Wintergrasp (haven't really ventured in since WotLK hit*, though I am planning an hour or two on my death knight tomorrow, because her lack of kills is bugging me, and I might suck it up and try the 19 bracket on my mage this week, too), I do want to experiment with a resto/elem hybrid spec at some point as well. But I might wait until dual-specs are implemented, because I'm incredibly attached to Riptide. <3 Riptide.

Anyway, the point is, if you are a resto/enh shaman, you might want to give resto/elem a try — it's totally worth the loss of instant ghost wolf.

*It's my carrot, along with my hunter. I made the mistake of going into the battlegrounds on Ahami at 49 and spent two weeks doing nothing at all but PVP. And then at 59 I did the same thing, but for even longer. If I go in on her before I hit 80, I won't come out, and I'd like to get there before the New Year so poor Ideale can get some love.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Post-break breakdown

So I after not playing on Thursday and Friday because of the holiday and work, and not playing Saturday, Sunday and most of today (EDIT: Today meaning Monday — it's not a new day until I've slept) due to Christmas shopping, card making, and various cooking projects, I finally got Ahami up to 75. And Silang close to 59 (I put Onashne on hold and have been going through Stranglethorn Vale with my friend E. on her priesty, but E.'s computer is in the shop, so Silang has mostly just been herbing).

Oh, and my troll mage up to 14. *shifty eyes*

Actually, the break was kind of nice. I got a lot done over the weekend and did some catching up (I've been playing fairly heavily since the patch came out, and needed to take a step back), and jumped back in ready to go.

I'm really excited, though, because in the process of getting Ahami to 75, I also completed the last of the prerequisite quests for the Wrathgate chain (yes, I'm still in Dragonblight. I still have quests in Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra, too, but I think after I finish this chain and the Dragonblight group quests, I will move on for now). I held off on starting it because of the server restart, but after the vague comments about how incredible it is, I am very much looking forward to doing it in the next few days.

I'm glad I chose not to start it tonight, though, because I got a little tip just before logging off that I should do all of the quests offered by Varimathras before starting this last leg if I plan to do them at all. And while I've done them all on Ambassador Ideale, I have not done them on Ahami, so it looks like I will be doing a few lowbie quests before I continue with leveling.

And on a side note, a group needed a healer for the last boss in the Nexus (good timing, no?) and I ended up healing through 6? 7? attempts. Three levels later and that instance still blows. We finally ended up getting through it with me and an enhancement shaman both healing, and lost the tank and rogue right as that bitch finally went down. The rogue got a dagger, and I got the achievement and will never step foot in that hellhole again.

Really, I think that unless you are a druid or maybe a priest, or really, really experienced with panic healing and GOOD at it, too, that instance is not a good one to be healing. Too many of the mobs and bosses either interrupt or require you to keep moving, meaning that unless you have a decent arsenal of quick-to-instant heals or HoTs, you end up sacrificing your own life to heal only for everyone else to die when no one heals.

EDIT: Oh, and I went and did some exploring in Grizzly Hills to kill the remaining time before I logged for the night, and it looks just like camp from when I was a kid. Except at camp the bears mostly just knocked over the dumpsters a lot instead of attacking random people riding down the road, and there weren't any furbolgs. But yeah, I don't know if it was the inspiration for sure, but it sure looks an awful lot like Yosemite.