At first glance, the upcoming paladin talent Touched by the Light looks incredible. Increasing health and threat by stacking just one stat? Yes please.
Unfortunately, I think this talent is not doing what it is supposed to do. I think it is meant to just be a healing talent, and that it will be changed to reflect this.
Tanking classes have had their threat talents rolled into basic class abilities. This means that tanking classes are able to tank, regardless of spec, which seems to be what Blizzard wants. So why give paladins another threat talent that only one spec could take?
I think this is just supposed to be a talent that will allow prot paladins to do some healing while in tank gear, and that the threat component is unintended. I expect it to be nerfed - that the talent will be changed to specify healing spellpower, or that paladins will only receive +spelldamage from their spellpower or their attack power (whichever is higher) but not both.
I hope I'm wrong, because I intend to take this talent regardless, and I'd like it to be the best it can be... but I can't shake the feeling that, at 80, it will just give us more threat than intended. It will be interesting to see what lvl 80 gear does for this talent...
August 2, 2008
July 25, 2008
One stat to rule them all
My prot paladin is my main, but my second character to 70 was my priest. Shadowpriest gearing is quite unusual, but gearing her up changed my way of thinking when looking at gear for my other characters... for better or for worse.
All characters depend on a variety of stats. A certain amount of stamina is needed for every character, since so many fights feature party- or raid-wide damage. Intellect is important for any caster. Hit, crit and spellhit are usually important, although the weight you give them will depend on your class.
Shadowpriests are a bit different. All of a shadowpriest's dps and utility are dependant on one thing - the amount of damage the priest does. So, once you are hit capped (which is particularly easy for a Draenei with talents, although this is changing in Wrath), the most important stat to stack is spelldamage (although haste can be better at high gear levels).
This led to my shadowpriest buying up level 70 'of shadow wrath' greens on the AH... and wearing them for quite a while. They may have no other stats... but the sheer volume of shadow damage on a green boe belt (+60) or bracers (+45) is hard to ignore. I certainly don't have any epic items for the same slots that rival those. I don't usually wear them, since it really is nice to actually have some health... but I still carry them with me.
This way of thinking carried over to my other characters too. When gemming and enchanting for my paladin, I'm a bit of an effective health nut - I'm one of those paladins with stamina gems in every socket. I know the differing schools of thought on gearing for effective health or avoidance (and I do have a backup avoidance set), but... I tend to trust in Murphy's Law a bit, and assume that my avoidance just won't cut it when I need it most, regardless of what my dodge chance is.
Besides, prot paladins have better stamina -> health scaling than anyone else in the game (well, Taurens aside), so why not play to my strength?
All characters depend on a variety of stats. A certain amount of stamina is needed for every character, since so many fights feature party- or raid-wide damage. Intellect is important for any caster. Hit, crit and spellhit are usually important, although the weight you give them will depend on your class.
Shadowpriests are a bit different. All of a shadowpriest's dps and utility are dependant on one thing - the amount of damage the priest does. So, once you are hit capped (which is particularly easy for a Draenei with talents, although this is changing in Wrath), the most important stat to stack is spelldamage (although haste can be better at high gear levels).
This led to my shadowpriest buying up level 70 'of shadow wrath' greens on the AH... and wearing them for quite a while. They may have no other stats... but the sheer volume of shadow damage on a green boe belt (+60) or bracers (+45) is hard to ignore. I certainly don't have any epic items for the same slots that rival those. I don't usually wear them, since it really is nice to actually have some health... but I still carry them with me.
This way of thinking carried over to my other characters too. When gemming and enchanting for my paladin, I'm a bit of an effective health nut - I'm one of those paladins with stamina gems in every socket. I know the differing schools of thought on gearing for effective health or avoidance (and I do have a backup avoidance set), but... I tend to trust in Murphy's Law a bit, and assume that my avoidance just won't cut it when I need it most, regardless of what my dodge chance is.
Besides, prot paladins have better stamina -> health scaling than anyone else in the game (well, Taurens aside), so why not play to my strength?
July 3, 2008
Wrath Beta opt-in
Apart from the people who win beta passes in competitions or get them by attending conventions, all the people who participate in Blizzard betas are picked randomly. For the next expansion, though, they aren't just picking randomly from anyone who has an account - they only want to pick people who are really interested in beta testing, so they are making a list that they will pick randomly from.
You can opt in to this list here.
This doesn't mean that you'll definitely get to beta test the expansion - only that you are on the list they are picking from. I guess your likelihood of being picked depends on how many people opt in.
As for whether you want to beta test the expansion or not, that's another issue entirely. I'm not sure that I do, but I'll opt in just in case!
You can opt in to this list here.
This doesn't mean that you'll definitely get to beta test the expansion - only that you are on the list they are picking from. I guess your likelihood of being picked depends on how many people opt in.
As for whether you want to beta test the expansion or not, that's another issue entirely. I'm not sure that I do, but I'll opt in just in case!
June 22, 2008
Midsummer Fire Festival
The Midsummer Festival is here again, and it's a bit more interesting than in previous years. There are a bunch of quests in the capital cities, and at bonfires outside every town, that give a decent amount of gold. The most interesting thing, though, is the summonable boss Lord Ahune, in the Slave Pens.
He's like the Headless Horseman in that he can be summoned once per day per character, so a 5 player group can kill him 5 times a day. In normal mode he drops 4 different epic capes, one each for attack power, spell damage, tanking and healing. They are the same as old cloaks that can be bought for 25 badges. He also can drop an epic spelldamage staff, a non-combat fire elemental pet and the new deathfrost enchant (the effect is similar to thunderclap). In heroic mode he drops the same items, plus 4 neckpieces.
The fight sounds similar to Ragnaros - he submerges after a while, and there are waves of adds. It sounds like a lot of fun, and it might be worth farming him...
The Festival goes until July 4th.
EDIT: bad pugs are bad
EDIT 2: Turns out it's more like Curator than Ragnaros. Kill waves of adds and ignore the boss, then kill the boss when he retreats into his shell, repeat. Also, the first time you kill him you get a tabard as a reward.
He's like the Headless Horseman in that he can be summoned once per day per character, so a 5 player group can kill him 5 times a day. In normal mode he drops 4 different epic capes, one each for attack power, spell damage, tanking and healing. They are the same as old cloaks that can be bought for 25 badges. He also can drop an epic spelldamage staff, a non-combat fire elemental pet and the new deathfrost enchant (the effect is similar to thunderclap). In heroic mode he drops the same items, plus 4 neckpieces.
The fight sounds similar to Ragnaros - he submerges after a while, and there are waves of adds. It sounds like a lot of fun, and it might be worth farming him...
The Festival goes until July 4th.
EDIT: bad pugs are bad
EDIT 2: Turns out it's more like Curator than Ragnaros. Kill waves of adds and ignore the boss, then kill the boss when he retreats into his shell, repeat. Also, the first time you kill him you get a tabard as a reward.
January 18, 2008
Cartographer
Cartographer is my favourite wow mod. Well, it's right up there with Omen, Recount, xPerl... anyhow, I know a few people have installed it lately and are loving it too.
For those who don't know, Cartographer does a bunch of things (as long as you download the appropriate modules) - it shows instance maps and boss loot, it tracks the location of other guild members running Cartographer on your world map, and it shows the location of all the mining, herbing and fishing nodes. With the Cartographer_routes module, it will draw a path between nodes to show you the fastest route to take while farming - and it has seriously cut my farming time in half. It is amazing.
The whole thing is a bit tricky to set up though, and I've been meaning to write up some instructions for a while, but hadn't got around to it. Fortunately, someone else has done it for me! So, if you ever mine or herb, go grab this mod, it is awesome.
For those who don't know, Cartographer does a bunch of things (as long as you download the appropriate modules) - it shows instance maps and boss loot, it tracks the location of other guild members running Cartographer on your world map, and it shows the location of all the mining, herbing and fishing nodes. With the Cartographer_routes module, it will draw a path between nodes to show you the fastest route to take while farming - and it has seriously cut my farming time in half. It is amazing.
The whole thing is a bit tricky to set up though, and I've been meaning to write up some instructions for a while, but hadn't got around to it. Fortunately, someone else has done it for me! So, if you ever mine or herb, go grab this mod, it is awesome.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)