Joel’s Scattered Thoughts

Still no Bear Tank Pawn scale, but if you’re sick of waiting this is where I’m going to start research for building one: Recognizing Bear Loot.

Here’s what Redcape’s Retribution DPS Calculator - Elitist Jerks has to say.

Seal of Blood/Seal of Martyr are the best seals. If you cannot risk the damage Seal of Corruption is in second place even without a Glyph, though if you find 5 points for Seals of the Pure then Seal of Righteousness becomes pretty reasonable.

The best Glyph setup is CS, Judgement, Consecration. When you are running SoB in a raid situation you should have so much mana you don’t know what to do with it all.

When using SoB your DPS return on 100 of each stat is as follows:

Weapon DPS 528.10
Str 168.09
Hit rating 126.59
Exp rating 79.55
Crit rating 73.56
Agil 69.60
AP 66.36
Haste rating 41.78
Armor Penetration 37.34
SP 21.95

Here’s my retribution DPS Pawn scale based on the above numbers. I assumed all sockets get a 16 STR gem and meta sockets are worth 1.
( Pawn: v1: “Ret DPS”: ArmorPenetration=0.3734, RedSocket=26.8944, ColorlessSocket=26.8944, CritRating=0.7356, Dps=5.281, Strength=1.6809, MetaSocket=10, HasteRating=0.4178, Agility=0.696, ExpertiseRating=0.7955, BlueSocket=26.8944, YellowSocket=26.8944, SpellPower=0.2195, HitRating=1.2659, Ap=0.6636 )

I may take my paladin ret for a while and Patch 3.0.2 primer for Retribution Paladins gives a nice breakdown of the talents. We’ll see if I actually act on it.

Ratshag has begun a death knight’s story with Screaming For Vengeance. As always, Ratshag’s stories are worth reading for a look at WoW through a character’s eyes.

I think I’ve figured out what’s bugging me about Wrath - it’s the (self-imposed) pressure to level.  I feel as though I ought to be one of the first (if not the first) in my guild alliance to level.  Given that my highest character is level 72, that’s not going to happen.  Okay, I could take my hunter, play day and night for the next three days and probably hit 80, but that wouldn’t be any fun.  I think I’m going to continue my current program of leveling an alt here and there and I’ll hit 80 when I get there.  There are a number of tanks leveling in our guild alliance so I won’t be leaving people high and dry.   I’m going to focus on the fun in game. 

EDIT: Larísa has a post along the same lines, Dealing with the fear of falling behind.

Greedy goblin has come up with A humble suggestion for making a dynamic version of World of Warcraft that would make raiding easier as time passes while keeping it tough for the hardcore. I especially like the idea that there would be a record of how hard a raid boss was then you defeated it.

Greedy goblin tells A warlock’s story, showing the complex interactions of WoW and the world that is. I would love to speak with a psychiatrist as wise as the one in the story. Mind you, I’d have to be willing to act on that wisdom as well.

So far my favorite part of Wrath is the new cooking recipes.  The new instances are well done.  The quests are amusing and well-planned.  Nevertheless I like the new food and fishing for it best. 

I really don’t know if I’m going to make it to raiding in Wrath.  I like the new quests and stuff but I’m finding leveling frustrating and leveling has always been one of my favorite parts of WoW.  I suspect that I have some unconscious expectations that aren’t being met and so far I haven’t managed to track down the cause of my dissatisfaction.

I managed to max out for Mining and Herbalism.  Herbalism was a little faster - I finished it at 2AM on Saturday.  Mining took me till this morning.  I did a couple of circuits of Netherstorm in Outlands to get my gathering skills above 400 and take advantage of that expensive flying mount.  After gathering some in the starting zones, I found that Sholazar Basin offers plenty of herbs and mining nodes that are surrounded by neutral or avoidable mobs.  Now my crafting professions are going to cost a good chunk of change to level, so I may hold off on those. 

Next time I’m in a capital I think I’m going to switch to this Warrior (0/8/54) for leveling. I’m tanking a lot but it looks as though I’ll be doing some questing, which means more DPS would be great.

Resto4Life has a WotLK Restoration FAQ up for druids. I doubt I’ll be going resto anytime soon on my druid but it’s good to have a reference in case I decide to heal.

Flameshock has a writeup of Shaman Wrath reputation rewards.

If you’re a gatherer, stay in Outlands!  Here’s why.

• Plenty of skill-ups to be had.  For example, mana thistle was still orange to my 275 herbalist.
• Well mapped nodes.  Outlands has been around for almost 2 years and every node has been mapped.  Use a gathering addon that includes a database of known node locations and a routing addon and be efficient!  I use Gathermate because of the automatic tracking switcher for my dual gatherer.
• Less competition - everyone’s fighting over the shiny new Northrend nodes.
• I believe I can fly!  Take advantage of that pricey (epic) flying mount of yours.

And here’s why not.

• Outlands isn’t shiny.  After two years, Outlands doesn’t have that new car smell any more.
• Crafting professions want new mats.  For higher level skill-ups or some of the shiny new items, you’re going to need Northrend materials. 

Note, the above does not apply for skinners - have fun right away in Northrend!

Edit: I managed to get mining to 405 and herbalism to 420 before I stopped getting skill-ups regularly. I’m guessing you could get up to 410 mining and 430 herbalism (or even higher with Khorium or Mana Thistle) before you stop getting skill-ups entirely.

I managed to get two runs of Utgarde Keep in yesterday.  The first was on my paladin and the second was on my warrior.  They were fun runs.  The bosses have some interesting mechanics to them - adds/random ice tomb, burn down both bosses at once, and a two phase fight.  It’s raid boss mechanics brought to instancing and I like it. 

We were just about to run Nexus when my computer died.  It looks like the motherboard died.  So now I have to deal with that before getting back on - I may just kidnap my work computer for the weekend. 

I ran across these two posts and found them very useful Transition from TBC Mechanics to Wotlk Mechanics for tankadins and Frequently *Answered* Questions - Tankadin quickie basics.

Jaimie and Faith went and waited in line at the 24 hour Walmart to pick up Wrath of the Lich King.  They got there about 2 hours ahead of time and were fifth and sixth in line.  The guy just ahead of Jaimie decided not to get a collector’s edition, so she managed to get it!  Jaimie got back around 1:30 AM and we proceeded to install the game and the patches.  We ran two of our toons to Northrend and called it a night.  The kids had a great time flipping through the art book and the card game this morning.  I’m looking forward to exploring Northrend. 

Galadria highlights some priest builds for Leveling in Wrath. It’ll be a while before I level a priest again, by which time everything will probably have changed.

Maintankadin has Zamach’s WoTLK Gear List for tanking paladins. My paladin will be one of my first three toons to level, so this is good stuff to have.

I had a bad feeling when I found out that I had the Tuesday before Wrath off.  Sure enough, realms are down "until they’re ready."  Ah well, I got my grandma’s picnic furniture moved, had a nap, read, and have generally managed to pass the time agreeably.  Now to do some extra housecleaning while I continue to wait. 

Karilyn on Tankspot has a great graphical breakdown of Warrior Ideal Warrior Single Target Threat Rotation as of 3.02. As is noted in the comments, be careful with Shockwave as it can easily miss a large target if you don’t aim it dead center while standing inside the target.