Joel's Scattered Thoughts

Notes on things that interest me

Posts Tagged shaman

Overcoming the Fear of Tanking

Dec 17

Posted by Joel in World Of Warcraft | No Comments

Spinks had a good post on  Overcoming the Fear of Tanking.  This is a great time time to learn how to tank or heal if you haven’t already.  Here’s why:

  1. Tank and healers are in demand! You will have as much opportunity to run instances as your little heart desires.
  2. Effort to find groups is pretty much nil. Click the Dungeon finder icon, sign up, keep busy with the usual stuff till your dungeon pops, run the dungeon and get a free port back to continue on your way.
  3. Tanking or healing lower level instances is easy. If you lack confidence, join the queue for specific dungeons 10 levels lower than you are.  Even if you screw up big-time, you’re still likely to keep your group alive.  Run instances progressing in difficulty till you reach instances at your current level and you’ll be more than ready for those.
  4. If you fail, you can try again. Sometimes you’ll just be off – DPS is AOE pulling every mob in an instance, the healer or tank is sleeping,  or you just can’t remember which button does what.  No big deal.  No-one in the group is likely to remember you tomorrow and finding another group is a cakewalk.  Analyze your mistakes, shake it off, do a few quests, and try again with a new group.

My current goal is to run my death knight through all regular Northrend instances, then move through the heroics.  By the time I finish that I’ll be more than ready to tank anything on him.  Depending on my level of enthusiasm, I’m thinking of doing the same thing healing on my shaman and tanking/healing on my druid.  My warrior and paladin have already done their tanking through instances and I’m not very interested in straight up DPS in a group.

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Restoration Shaman Pawn Scale 3.2

Sep 16

Posted by Joel in World Of Warcraft | No Comments

I got around to doing some healing on my shaman when I was pulled into a Trial of the Champion run.  That first run was just terrible as I really had no idea what I was doing.

A little later I found myself healing for an assault on the world dragons as an engineer hunted for the lifelike mechanical toad pattern. This time I wasn’t scrambling to figure out my gear and spec while a group waited, so it went much better.

Surprisingly, the clearest explanation of how to heal as a shaman is on Elitist Jerks: Shaman: Restoration.   I went for the Riptide – Lesser Healing Wave – Lesser Healing Wave setup.

Here’s the Pawn scale I used.  Note that the quotation marks may not come through in a copy/paste.

( Pawn: v1: “Resto EJ (3.2)”: Intellect=1.1, CritRating=0.8, HasteRating=0.45, SpellPower=1, Mp5=1.3, GemQualityLevel=81 )

I found that Power Auras Classic was extremely useful, especially as a reminder to keep buffs up as an inexperienced healer. (See this NoStockUI post for more)

Sadly, Power Auras strings are quite long, so I’m just going to put up the one I used for Earthshield on Focus:

gcd:bofalse; b:nu0.1843137254902; anim1:nu1; ignoreResting:botrue; optunitn:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; stacksLower:nu0; target:bofalse; icon:stInterface\Icons\Spell_Nature_SkinofEarth; size:nu0.5; torsion:nu1; r:nu0.39607843137255; y:nu30; x:nu0; customname:st; groupany:botrue; timerduration:nu0; unitn:st; bufftype:nu1; stacks:nu0; focus:botrue; raid:bofalse; texture:nu42; alpha:nu0.75; aurastext:st; symetrie:nu0; soundfile:st; owntex:bofalse; duration:nu0; mine:botrue; multiids:st; inVehicle:bofalse; speed:nu1; sound:nu0; stacksOperator:st>=; realaura:nu1; threshold:nu50; exact:bofalse; textaura:bofalse; wowtex:botrue; groupOrSelf:bofalse; customsound:st; combat:nu0; InactiveDueToState:botrue; id:nu1; aurastextfont:nu1; HideRequest:bofalse; Active:bofalse; spec2:botrue; customtex:bofalse; isSecondary:bofalse; g:nu0.25882352941176; thresholdinvert:bofalse; tooltipCheck:st; stance:nu10; anim2:nu0; buffname:stEarth Shield; Showing:bofalse; spec1:bofalse; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; party:bofalse; texmode:nu1; inverse:botrue; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; randomcolor:bofalse; isinraid:bofalse; finish:nu1; timer.a:nu1; timer.dual:bofalse; timer.cents:botrue; timer.HideLeadingZeros:bofalse; timer.id:nu1; timer.y:nu0; timer.h:nu1; timer.Transparent:bofalse; timer.HideRequest:botrue; timer.Showing:bofalse; timer.x:nu0; timer.enabled:bofalse

I didn’t mind healing on my shaman, but I’m still not up for much group play right now so I’ll probably stick to a nice solo enhancement build  as primary spec.


Tauren Shaman by ~DavidRapozaArt on deviantART

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Healing on a Shaman

Feb 27

Posted by Joel in World Of Warcraft | 1 Comment

With my shaman at 80, I now need to figure out how to heal with a shaman.  The only thing I’ve healed with him is Karazhan at 70 and things have changed since then.

I’ve managed to get a lot of good gear thanks to LootRank, some luck at the Auction House, and my friendly neighborhood leatherworker. (Thanks Hidi!)  My plan is to respec and get into some instance runs this weekend.  I may try to finish off the initial Sons of Hodir questline first though.

Anna has a lovely guide to resto shaman healing spells.  PlusHeal talks a little more about spell rotations for different situations and provides some advice for new healers.  Lodur on World of Matticus has a post on Being the Shaman Behind the Meat Shield. 

It’s been a while since I ran as a healer.  For now the plan is to keep tanking on my warrior as my main role, but it’s good to have options. 

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Shaman Ding 80

Feb 26

Posted by Joel in World Of Warcraft | No Comments

almost

I was getting close to 80 as I turned in a quest or two.  It amused me that I managed to get that close without dinging over.

As I flew around looking for a mob or two, I discovered the coast off of Grizzly Hills and dinged 80! 

anzu_80

Now I need to figure out how to play a resto shaman.  My big question right now is do I switch to resto right away, or should I finish rep grinds such as Sons of Hodir first? 

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My WoW Resume (early 2009)

Feb 23

Posted by Joel in World Of Warcraft | No Comments

resume I was reading Matticus’ post, What GMs Want to See on Your Guild App, and I stared thinking about some of my accomplishments in WoW.  Since many of these were pre-3.0, I don’t have the achievements for them which makes me a little sad.

Healing

  • Raid healed all of Zul’Gurub and Molten Core, and most of AQ-20 at 60 and roughly the first third of Kara at 70
  • Leveled a holy priest from 1-60 in vanilla WoW, then to 70 in BC
  • References: Anath, Legionofone, Balm

Tanking

  • Tanked Naxxramas-10 (Arachnid Quarter, Plague Quarter, Patchwerk, Grobbulus, Thaddius) and Sartharion 0 drakes.
  • Leveled a protection warrior and protection paladin from 1-70 in BC, then to 80 in Wrath
  • Tanked Karazhan and the first 3 bosses in Zul’Aman in BC
  • Tanked BC Heroics with bear druid
  • References: Mazzarella, Beeferino

DPS

  • Progression raided Naxxramas with Retribution Paladin
  • Raided BC farm content on BM Hunter, Enhancement Shaman,  Warlock
  • References: Shamaniac, Jusy

Raid Leading

  • Helped organize a guild alliance
  • Raid led through Karazhan, part of ZA, and Naxxramas-10
  • References: Zurdante, Mornal

PvP

  • Obtained Knight title in classic WoW
  • Hit Exalted with Stormpike Guard back in the days of 12 hour AVs
  • I don’t PvP anymore

That’s all that comes to mind right now.  It’s fun to look back on the stuff I managed to get done.  I would say that raid leading is probably the most challenging part of the game – not the fights themselves but all the dealing with people and their issues, balancing things so that it all works out. 

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Resto gear guides for Heroics and Naxxramas

Jan 11

Posted by Joel in World Of Warcraft | No Comments

Flame Shock has a roundup of : Resto gear guides for Heroics and Naxxramas in case I level my shaman and decide I want to heal with him. Right now my shaman is the toon I’d be most interested in using to heal.

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Pawn Scales for Wrath

Dec 28

Posted by Joel in World Of Warcraft | 2 Comments

pawn Here are the Pawn scales I’m using for my toons in Wrath of the Lich King.   As always, Pawn is for quick comparisons, not for squeezing every last point out of your gear.  Read Skeleton Jack’s post on Pawn for some of the things to watch out for.  I have tweaked some of these scales and I have no strong theorycrafting proof behind their effectiveness. 

A few more points to note:

1. Each rating is relative only to itself.

Some pawn users assume that if they have two strings, that the rating that has the higher value is what the gear is better for. This is NOT the case. You should only use a rating to compare two items together, rather than using ratings to determine what an item is better for. (Note: This rule can be counterfeit, but that requires balancing points)
2. A rating that gives you numbers in the 100’s is no better or worse than one that gives you points in the 10,000’s
Remember, this is a relative comparison tool. So 900 – 1000 may be better than 90,000 to 95,000.
3. Pawn doesn’t account for everything
Raid buffs, gear changing, and Talents factor in here as well. These are static values to help determine relative value, but raid buffs, talent changes, and changes from blizzard will affect the relative value of these statistics, so these strings will more than likely be dynamic.

Warrior

Protection

Balanced

(Pawn: v1: “Balanced”: CritRating=0.89, Agility=8.47, ExpertiseRating=9.22, DefenseRating=11.13, BlockValue=4.86, ArmorPenetration=1, Dps=3.56, Strength=3.84, ParryRating=8.24, BlockRating=8.42, DodgeRating=9.61, HitRating=1.98, Stamina=14.29, Armor=1, HasteRating=0.62, Ap=0.43 )

Survival

( Pawn: v1: “Survival”: BlockRating=8.49, Strength=2.91, ParryRating=8.56, Agility=8.02, ExpertiseRating=7.22, DefenseRating=11.61, Stamina=14.25, Armor=1, DodgeRating=10.09, BlockValue=4.98 )

Threat

( Pawn: v1: “Threat”: ArmorPenetration=4.54, CritRating=4.03, Dps=16.15, Strength=4.66, ParryRating=0.41, Agility=3.26, HitRating=9.56, HasteRating=3.02, ExpertiseRating=9.56, Ap=2 )

Based roughly on Elitist Jerks Tanking Spreadsheet.  Needs to be edited for sockets.

( Pawn: v1: “Heavy”: RedSocket=16, CritRating=0.8, Strength=1, MetaSocket=8, ExpertiseRating=0.7, BlueSocket=16, YellowSocket=16, ColorlessSocket=16, HitRating=0.7, BlockValue=0.9 )

Based roughly on Matthew Rossi’s post,The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Heavy.  This is for leveling as a Prot Warrior.  Vene has a good post for Raid DPS as a Prot Warrior.

Fury

See this post for Fury Warriors.

Paladin

Mostly from this thread on Elitist Jerks. 

Protection

Mitigation

( Pawn: v1: “ProtMit”: DodgeRating=18, BlockRating=1, Ap=1.2, CritRating=0.6, Strength=9.5, ParryRating=14.5, ExpertiseRating=1.5, Agility=14.5, HitRating=1.1, Stamina=19.1, Armor=1.2, SpellPower=0.8, DefenseRating=16.5, BlockValue=16.5 )

Threat

( Pawn: v1: “ProtThr”: Intellect=0.2, DodgeRating=15.1, BlockRating=0.9, Ap=4.7, CritRating=2.4, Strength=18.8, ParryRating=12.8, ExpertiseRating=6.1, Agility=12.2, HitRating=4.2, Stamina=16.8, Armor=1.1, SpellPower=3.1, DefenseRating=13.9, BlockValue=17.4 )

Holy

( Pawn: v1: “Holy”: Intellect=2.25, RedSocket=24, CritRating=1.1, MetaSocket=75, HasteRating=1, BlueSocket=14, Stamina=0.1, SpellPower=1.2, Mp5=2.5, YellowSocket=30 )

Shaman

Enhancement

Based on a run of EnhSim, DPS simulator

( Pawn: v1: “AEP Calc”: Intellect=1.14, CritRating=0.64, Agility=1.39, ExpertiseRating=0.67, OffHandDps=4.33, YellowSocket=32, ArmorPenetration=0.52, RedSocket=32, Strength=1, MetaSocket=16, HitRating=0.68, BlueSocket=32, MainHandDps=8.82, HasteRating=0.81, ColorlessSocket=32, Ap=1 )

Restoration

Based on this post.

( Pawn: v1: “Resto (EJ)”: Intellect=7, RedSocket=105, HasteRating=3, BlueSocket=86, YellowSocket=112, SpellPower=5, Mp5=10, CritRating=3 )

EDIT: There is something broken about these scales for weapons. Do not use them to decide which weapon to use.

Hunter

Beastmaster

( Pawn: v1: “Beast Mastery”: Intellect=7, RedSocket=128, CritRating=5, MetaSocket=168, HitRating=10, Agility=7, HasteRating=2, BlueSocket=128, YellowSocket=128, ArmorPenetration=6, Mp5=8, Ap=4 )

From this thread

Druid

Cat

( Pawn: v1: “Cat (Toskk)”: ArmorPenetration=1.0161, RedSocket=37.312, Strength=2.332, CritRating=0.83, ColorlessSocket=37.312, MetaSocket=103.21, FeralAp=1, Agility=1.6992, ExpertiseRating=1.0362, BlueSocket=18.66, YellowSocket=26.92, HitRating=1.0334, HasteRating=0.7236, Ap=1 )

From Flyv

Bear

( Pawn: v1: “Bear (Toskk)”: RedSocket=113.7, YellowSocket=101.3, ColorlessSocket=172.4, MetaSocket=329, Stamina=7.185, Agility=3.429, Health=0.411, BlueSocket=172.4, Armor=1.066, DefenseRating=1.885, DodgeRating=2.685, ExpertiseRating=1.306 )

From Flyv

Resto

( Pawn: v1: “Resto”: Intellect=5.79, HasteRating=2.87, CritRating=2.05, SpellPower=9.4, Spirit=5.13, Mp5=10 )

From this Elitist Jerks Post

Death Knight

Unholy

( Pawn: v1: “Unholy”: ArmorPenetration=0.544, RedSocket=39.7552, CritRating=1.12, Strength=2.4847, ColorlessSocket=39.7552, HasteRating=0.621, Agility=0.7336, HitRating=2.474, BlueSocket=17.3929, YellowSocket=25.2329, TwoHandDps=7.567, ExpertiseRating=1.391, Ap=1 )

From Skeleton Jack’s Post.  

Other

Other specs, Warlocks, Priests, Mages, and Rogues are out of luck here.  I suggest Elitist Jerks as a starting point. Good luck in your search!

 

NOTE: No warranties, either express or implied, are hereby given. All software is supplied as is, without guarantee.  The user assumes all responsibility for damages resulting from the use of these features, including, but not limited to, frustration, disgust, system abends, disk head-crashes, general malfeasance, floods, fires, shark attack, nerve gas, locust infestation, cyclones, hurricanes, tsunamis, local electromagnetic disruptions, hydraulic brake system failure, invasion, hashing collisions, normal wear and tear of friction surfaces, comic radiation, inadvertent destruction of sensitive electronic components, windstorms, the Riders of Nazgul, infuriated chickens, malfunctioning mechanical or electrical sexual devices, premature activation of the distant early warning system, peasant uprisings, halitosis, artillery bombardment, explosions, cave-ins, and/or frogs falling from the sky.

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Who Are My Characters?

Dec 27

Posted by Joel in World Of Warcraft | No Comments

I was talking with Jaimie yesterday about our Warcraft characters in a roleplaying sense.  I don’t have much of a backstory for any of them, but I do have a decent idea of their personalities.  It’s conversations such as these that have me considering an RP server if I reroll again.

Despite being a warrior that uses rage, Tristam is very calm.  Solid and reliable are words that come to mind when I’m thinking about him.  He doesn’t get angry and is very relaxed. He sees himself as the shield for the group.  “Is a shield false and only a sword true?”

Merddyn is a warlock because it’s convenient and easy.  He’s very self-centered and barely recognizes the existence of an outside world.  He’s not looking to rule the world (far too much bother), he just wants what he wants and sees no reason why he shouldn’t just take it.  “I’ve divided the world into two types of thing:  The ones I can kill with impunity, and those I have to be more circumspect about.“

Anzu is a very angry shaman.  I have no idea what he’s angry about. He quests so that he has a socially acceptable way to kill things.   Merddyn will kill you if you get in his way, but otherwise doesn’t care about you.  Anzu wants to kill you but won’t unless it’s acceptable to the Horde.  “In the beginning, the Universe was created. This had made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.“

Early on, Andromache would have preferred to be an alliance paladin working with the Naaru rather than stealing the Light’s power.  She wants to do what’s right.  After having gone through Outlands, she has retained her strong moral and ethical sense, but no longer trusts the Naaru. “Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties – but right through every heart – and through all hearts.“

Arthemis wants to take things apart to see how they work.  She’s chosen to be a hunter because people in cities tend to get upset when you take apart magical or mechanical things and you can’t quite put them back together.  She’s happiest out on her own thinking.  “Most things run on smoke. If it leaks out, they don’t work.”

As a druid, Emerys feels a deep connection with nature.  He fits the stereotype of the hippie druid.  He’s calm and quests because he wants to help maintain nature’s balance.  “In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments – there are consequences.“

I don’t know why but I like having some idea of who the characters I play are. 

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Another Day, Another Epic Mount

Nov 27

Posted by Joel in World Of Warcraft | No Comments

fly I finally decided to get an epic flying mount for my shaman.  As a miner, it makes sense for him to skill up mining in Outlands before going heading up to Northrend.  The pain of flying around Outlands on a normal flying mount got to me and since I have plenty of money on server (despite screwing up trying to sell gems from prospecting), I decided to get him an epic flyer. 

Now my poor little warlock is my only 70+ toon without an epic flying mount.  Since he spends his time milling herbs in Dalaran, he probably won’t be getting one until until he hits 77.  With the no flying in Northrend before 77 restriction, there’s really no point to getting one before then. 

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Shaman Wrath reputation rewards and tactics

Nov 15

Posted by Joel in World Of Warcraft | No Comments

Flameshock has a writeup of Shaman Wrath reputation rewards.

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Shaman Healing Kara

Nov 6

Posted by Joel in World Of Warcraft | 2 Comments

healing We ran the first part of Kara pretty much spontaneously last night.  There were four druids itching to tank the place and we only had one healer, so I decided to respec my shaman resto and help heal.  This is the first time I heal anything on my shaman and it went pretty well.

I was woefully unprepared, but with the way they’ve nerfed Kara it really didn’t matter.  I grabbed a spec off of WoWWikki and pulled my gear with the highest spellpower out of the bank.   Any spells that looked like they’d help out with healing were dropped onto my action bar and I spent the evening trying to figure out what to use when.  Hopefully next time I remember to consult resources such as Resto Shaman vs. Karazhan – a Healing Guide.

A lot of gear dropped for me, mostly enhancement stuff.  When we started Kara we had an enhancement shaman who couldn’t stop getting resto drops, so I suppose this is to balance that out?  Due to the inordinate number of druids there were only three people who could use the axe from the holiday boss, so I got it by greed rolling.  (From what I can tell you have to be able to equip the axe for its use effect, so hopefully there wasn’t a druid who wanted to try it.) 

I don’t know if I want to go back to healing at all.  This was a heavily nerfed Kara, an instance I’ve been raid leading for months, and I still spent all my time making the bars go right.  I really didn’t see any of the fights, I just focused on standing in the right place and keeping people healed.   As a tank, I’m very aware of what’s happening around me even when I’m standing there staring into a demon’s crotch. 

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Shaman Ding 70!

Nov 2

Posted by Joel in World Of Warcraft | 3 Comments

anzu_70 My shaman hit 70 today!  I started any number of shaman and didn’t get them up very high.  It’s a good feeling to finally get one up to 70.  I’m not sure if I’ll play him much between now and the expansion, but it’s been a fun trip. 

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Item point scales

Oct 27

Posted by Joel in World Of Warcraft | No Comments

Warrior Best item point scale to use going into Wrath? looks like a good point scale for rating items in Pawn for Warriors.

Looks like something similar for paladin tanks.

I’ve missed having a Pawn Scale. Now I need something for a resto druid, tanking druid, and resto shaman.

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Shaman Play in 3.02

Oct 27

Posted by Joel in World Of Warcraft | No Comments

shaman2 I had a chance to play my shaman this weekend and got him a good chunk of the way through 67.  The changes to shamans in 3.02 are huge.  My enhancement shaman now feels like a real hybrid class rather than a self-healing rogue. 

The trickiest bit has been remembering to use all these fancy new abilities.  For example, I was fighting a weak elite, meant to hit chain lightning and brought out my spirit wolves instead.  That was a very happy surprise!  I’m going to try to solo a tougher elite next time I get on, just to get practice in burning through my cooldowns. 

Maelstrom weapon is a lot of fun – I love popping those instant heals if my health is down.  Water shield keeps my mana filled up.  I’m now doing roughly 50/50 physical and magical attacks as opposed to the pre-patch 80/20. 

I’m probably going to switch to resto when I hit 70 and I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do with that spec.   I think I’m ready to play a healer again. 

EDIT: I managed to trivially solo Torgos and Terokkarantula at 67. Windroc Matriarch was somewhat tougher but I got her down too.

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Druid Ding 70!

Oct 18

Posted by Joel in World Of Warcraft | No Comments

My feral druid, Emerys, finally hit 70.  I almost entirely followed Jame’s Leveling Guides.  Near the end of my leveling I consistently found people to do elite quests, so I ended up doing a lot more of those and dinging shortly after hitting the Blade’s Edge portion of the guides.  Now to get my shaman up those last 4 levels and my warlock up those last 7…

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Echoes of Doom Enhancement review

Oct 17

Posted by Joel in World Of Warcraft | No Comments

Matthew Rossi has a post on playing an enhancement shaman post patch, Totem Talk: Echoes of Doom Enhancement review. I haven’t even logged onto my shaman since the patch came out. I plan to reread this when I finally log into him this weekend.

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3.0x Builds

Oct 9

Posted by Joel in World Of Warcraft | 1 Comment

build We’re getting awfully close to 3.0x’s release – no official date yet though.  Here are the builds I’m looking at for my toons.  I expect that I’ll have made some silly mistakes in picking out talents, but I can live with that. :)

Tristam is going to be tanking for any raids we get going between now and Wrath and for our static group after Wrath’s release.  I need to track down more build information, but for now I’m thinking Warrior 5/0/54. (I should also look at this build from TankingTips.com.

Andromache is going to stick to protection as well.  I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up doing 5 mans for most of her leveling.  I’m leaning toward Paladin 0/56/5.

Arthemis is definitely going for a primarily beast mastery spec.  Exotic pets look like fun, but I suspect I’ll stick with my kitty pet for actual leveling.  One of my favorite things about hunters is chain trapping.  Thus I’m aiming for resourcefulness down the survival tree with Hunter 41/0/20.  I know it’s sub-optimal for MQoSRDPS but this is not a grouping toon, it’s a fun toon so BRK can bite me. 

The following toons are not 70 yet, so here’s where I think I’ll head given their current levels. 

Emerys is likely going to stay feral.  I’m leaning towards Druid 0/51/6 at the moment. (An alternate spec from ThinkTank is Druid 0/50/11)

Anzu is going to stay enhancement.  I’m leaning towards Shaman 0/51/6. EDIT: Apparently resto is no longer as useful, so I’m thinking Shaman 6/51/0 instead.

I think I’d like to give demonology a shot on Merddyn, so I’ll try Warlock 0/54/0. 

Flint is staying in retirement for now, so I’m not even thinking about priest builds. 

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Daily Maintenance

Sep 29

Posted by Joel in World Of Warcraft | No Comments

maintenance Most evenings when I get home, I do a daily maintenance routine in Warcraft.  First I log onto my bank alt, see what’s sold, and scan the auction house for bargains.  If I’m lucky I’ll have passed another goalpost money-wise.  Then I log into my enchanter, disenchant the stuff my bank alt has sent, mail the resulting mats back, and check the daily fishing quest.  If it’s one I can do I’ll do it on her and my paladin to skill up their fishing and pick up some extra fish for buff food.  Then it’s on to my warrior for my daily transmute.  If it was one of the tougher fishing quests, I may go do it on him.  Then it’s on to my shaman to prospect any ores that my bank alt may have found.  Finally I log back into my bank alt and put the enchanting mats and gems up for sale.  By the time I finish that, it’s about time for me to log off to help the kids with homework.  I’ll be back on to play in an hour or two. 

The whole routine takes me about an hour.  Why do I do it?  It’s easy money.  I’m nowhere near the gold cap, but I’ve had no problem buying epic mounts for my level 70 toons.  It’s easy to interrupt.  It really doesn’t matter if I walk away from my computer for 15 minutes in the middle of a transmute.  If I tried that in the middle of a run it wouldn’t go so well.  This part of my evening is prone to interruptions anyway, so I may as well plan for them. 

A good chunk of it is just a personality thing.  I like to get the dull stuff out of the way first so that I can enjoy the good stuff guilt free.  Doing this little maintenance routine is enough fun that I get a little break between work and starting housework.  At the same time, it’s dull enough that I’d rather not be doing it during my prime playing time.  Taking care of routine stuff this way works for me.

  Do you have any routines you follow in WoW?

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Gone Resto

Sep 10

Posted by Joel in World Of Warcraft | No Comments

Gone Resto
(words only, click here for the tune)

Since I wrote the previous post, something has happened to Shamaniac.

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Fine Things about Enhancement Shamans

Sep 10

Posted by Joel in World Of Warcraft | 1 Comment

shaman What makes an enhancement shaman a valuable member of a raid?

The biggest thing is that enhancement shamans boost melee DPS a LOT.  In a raid situation an enhancement shaman may not be at the top of the DPS charts but with their totems, unleashed rage, and Stormstrike they contribute a lot to boosting the group’s damage.

If they’re skilled at totem twisting, enhancement shaman can provide the group with an extra buff.  There are no other classes that can pull off this trick. 

Since enhancement shamans DPS comes mainly from auto-attack and Windfury, with the rest of their DPS abilities being on fairly long cooldowns, they have a number of global cooldowns available for additional utility.  Totem twisting is one of these, others could include purging buffs from mobs or removing disease/poison debuffs from the raid.

Enhancement shamans are one of the few DPS classes that provide wipe protection.  Their self-resurrection combined with their ability to resurrect others can help keep the raid going for that one last try at a boss.

Enhancement shaman are charming critters, even though I wouldn’t pick them for my ideal WoW party.

(This post is dedicated to my favorite enhancement shaman, Shamaniac.)

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