WoW

Deciding On Talents

stargrace September 24, 2010 1Comment

I have to say, I really like how talent options are done in World of Warcraft. I like that you can change your talents on the go (unlike EQ2 where you’re required to travel to your home, and use your achievement mirror each time) and I like that each specialization is drastically different than the others. What I mean is: if my priest is specialized as a shadow priest (which she is more often than not) she actually does more than enough damage to be considered dps. In EQ2 if you use your healer to go down a dps line you’re not going to be competing with Tier 1 dps in groups. You’re still going to be a healer – who can do some damage.

In a lot of cases there are multiple dps lines as well which is great. For example my druid and shaman can both choose a healer talent line – or a melee dps talent line – or a caster talent line (or a combination). I spend a lot of time trying to figure out what sort of set up I’d like. Usually, I go caster talent for my OS (off spec). That way I don’t need to carry around two sets of gear (melee + healer). Since I’m so used to playing casters, I decided to take the melee rout on my shaman.

I’m bad at it. Very bad. BUT it’s a learning experience, and one that I’m sure I’ll get better at. Shaman are slightly different (enhancement) because a lot of their damage relies on random procs. There’s n0 specific cast order for max DPS, but instead there is a cast priority depending on what you have procing.

I’ve come to respect this game more then I have in previous years. Yes, anyone can play and it is quite easy – but if you want to be GOOD at it, it requires a little work and research.

How does everyone else decide which talents to select? Do you go the comfort rout, what you know? Or do you experiment with what you’ve never tried before? Let me know in comments!

A Learning Experience

stargrace September 23, 2010 1Comment

Sholazar Basin, pictured above. One of my favorite zones from Wrath. I’ve spent a little time over the past two days questing here to earn some easy money (alts are expensive, and gems even more so). The priest has managed to climb her way to a 5k gs and just shy of 5k in her discipline gear. Healing is much easier now though I still have to be on the look for things like – the tank taking off and pulling everything in sight before I’m even in the zone and buffed.

I’ve learned a good number of things leveling up. I can appreciate good players. Players who (for example) ask before they mount up in The Oculus if it’s alright to ride a certain dragon mount for their achievement (that’s right, I’m looking at you mage who grabbed the healer mount without saying a word). Death Knights who don’t decide to randomly pop their army on an encounter that has a mob spitting at everyone it faces (those army zombies are incredibly annoying, flipping mobs every which way). I’d like to say that I’m learning a little more patience, but I’m not sure if that’s really true. I no longer fear pick up groups like I once had and that’s always a welcome change.

With both my warlock and priest sitting at level 80 with ok gear I’m contemplating who (if anyone) to work up next. I enjoy the process of leveling, and there isn’t such a dire need for my ‘mains’ to grind out dungeons any more aside from my dailies for frost tokens. My characters are:

• 80 Priest(Shadow/Discipline)
• 80 Warlock(Destruction/Demonology)
• 70 Shaman(Restoration/Elemental)
• 68 Death Knight
• 38 Druid
• 20 Rogue
• 18 Paladin

Both the paladin and the rogue are a lot of fun to play, but I’ve also been wondering if I should experience the alliance side of things before it all changes with Cataclysm. With the expansion looming close in the distance there’s really no great need to grind out gear to be the best of the best right now. Then of course comes the decision of what to play on the alliance side, and where.

Ah, choices!

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

References and Betas

stargrace September 22, 2010 1Comment

The screen shot above shows a reference to the TV show “Lost” (the numbers are all one off from the numbers in the show). Had I not actually just finished watching all 6 seasons recently, I would have no idea what this little buried hatch in the ground represented. While some people may not like these intrusions in the game, I actually enjoy them quite a bit. They may not fit in with the lore of the game, but they’re little things that make me giggle and remind me of life outside the game (how odd is that).

With Cataclysm creeping closer and closer, I decided to delve into the beta a bit more. Not because I want to know everything there is to know about the new zones or races but because I want to know what changes are coming to my own characters. Knowing what talents are going to be moved around is important to me, especially if it affects the way I currently play my characters. You can expect a few beta posts over the next little while, hopefully no one minds (granted, this is my site, so if people DO mind there’s not a heck of a lot I’ll be doing about it).

Brewfest has been quite fun. My healer won a trinket that was actually an upgrade for the heal spec. Last night in Pit I won a 2h weapon that was a massive upgrade over what I was wearing, and my gs is resting close to 4.9k It was also a day for absolutely horrible groups, and I’m coming to hate the death knight class – but also appreciate good players. It seems like this week has brought about death knights who can not parse more then 1k – and while I can appreciate a new player, if you’re queued up for heroic Halls of Reflection, that is just not going to cut it. Then there was the two DK’s in Pit, and the DK in, well, pretty much every other zone. I’ve seen how this class plays when it’s played well (and they can be quite amazing) but this week has really been groups of pure suck.

Ah well, that’s the joys of the LFD tool.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

In Game Events

stargrace September 21, 2010 0Comment

It’s that time again – Brewfest!

Achievements I earned yesterday included:

• Down with the dark iron
• The brewfest diet
• Strange brew
• Have Keg, will travel
• Drunken stupor
• Direbrewfest
• Green Brewfest stein

My little spriest is doing quite well. I’ve hit 4.7k gs and managed to get a few upgrades yesterday including a new robe, belt, shoes, and trinket. Against raid geared players I’m still at the bottom of the parse (some times) but I can more than hold my own and in group encounters do incredibly well. Knowing my spell rotation has helped a very large amount, and I picked up the AddOn “MFClip” which basically just has a list of timers of your spells on the mob so that you don’t ‘clip’ your dots short – what this means is that some times your dots build up and have a final burst of damage. If you refresh the dot before it’s expired you’re cutting off some of your dps hence the whole clipping. With the timers on display I know exactly when the spells are going to run out, and can refresh much easier.

Right now my spell rotation includes:

Vampiric Touch -> Devouring Plague (although a lot of mobs in Wrath are immune to this and it annoys me since it’s one of my larger dots) -> Mind Blast -> Mind Flay (x2 if I haven’t built up my 5 ranks yet) -> Shadow word: Pain (VERY important not to cast this until you have built up your five ranks!) then I rotate between Vampiric Touch (when it needs to be refreshed), Devouring Plague (again when it needs to be refreshed), Mind Blast, and Mind Flay is the filler when MB is down and the two dots don’t need refreshing.

As far as gems go, for raids you need hit rating, then I work on spell power -> haste -> crit -> spirit -> int -> stam

I’d like to partake in a few raids, either as healer or dps (I can do both) and I’m excited about inching my way closer to the 5k gs mark. We’ll just have to see how that goes. If you’re on Firetree be sure to say hello to Faydai – or you can add me to realID (just email me at stargrace@mmoquests.com). Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Updates

stargrace September 20, 2010 0Comment

I spent most of the weekend working on my priest, or my spriest as they’re called (Shadow Priest). I saved up enough emblems to purchase my hat – 75 emblems is a lot (for me at least) to save up. I’m now sporting the gloves/robe/pants to my heal set, the shoulders/gloves to my dps set, the meta gem hat and a few odds and ends. Working on two different sets at once is annoying (to say the least) and making sure that I’ve got the proper gems where they need to be is a huge drain on the pocket book. Surprisingly enough the priest does pretty good dps. I’m still below where I want to be, and I have to work at it (unlike the warlock) but I’m not always at the bottom any more. I imagine with more gear and as I inch closer to a 5k gs I’ll get better. Heals are also coming along easier. It’s odd for me to be playing a game where gear DOES make a huge difference.

There have been a few festivals in game lately and they’ve all been alright – but today (well, 3am) marked the beginning of Brewfest, which I am very excited about. Mostly because there are achievements for this festival, and also because I’ve only ever participated once before. I don’t drink in real life, but working on achievements is something I really enjoy doing to pass the time when I don’t feel like dungeon grinding.

Sorry for the lack of screen shot in this post, too! I haven’t been hitting the print screen button nearly as much as I should be. Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!