There have been some changes made to two of the key components of Unholy Tank mechanics.
Namely they increased the cooldown on Bone Shield to 2 minutes, up from 1 minute and they changed Blade Barrier from a 10% increased parry chance to 5% reduced damage.
(They also did schtuff to Anti-Magic Shell, but considering that is a very situational issue and not a 'can you tank, at all' change, I haven't looked too deeply at it.)
Unholy Tanks relied on keeping Blade Barrier up to prolong the use of their Bone Shield. Bone Shield reduces damage taken by 20% (consuming one 'charge' per damaging attack, 4 unglyphed, 6 with glyph). We don't have access to a few of the seemingly 'tank specific' abilities that Frost DK's (probably the most common 'Tank' spec for DK's) have access too, Unbreakable Armor and Frigid Dreadplate. In order to get to Frigid Dreadplate (possible to do), we'd have to give up quite a bit of points in Unholy. And frankly, while 3% miss rate is nice to have, is it worth giving up some of the things that we take as Unholy because we want to be Unholy? I don't think so, personally.
In the past, we'd be popping Bone Shield like candy. In the past, keeping Blade Barrier up to increase our parry chance by 10% meant that Bone Shield stayed active until the cooldown was available.
Now, some DK's have the gear where they didn't need Blade Barrier active and could theoretically keep Bone Shield active and going without that additional 10% parry. For those of us Unholy tanks that don't have access to that gear... making sure Blade Barrier stayed active was an important element of our rotation.
Yesterday I took Keiji to Heroic UP. I was expecting it to be a bit tougher than it actually was. The damage reduction of the new Blade Barrier is a nice thing, (still miss the parry though!), that's 5% all the time, subject only to the cooldown of your blood runes. Bone Shield was being hit everytime it came up, as one would expect, but all in all... it wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting.
So though people out there (I'm looking at YOU, Pos) keep saying that Unholy DK's are DPS, I'm thinking that I am going to keep Keiji Unholy, and Tanky.
BTW: The Red Sword of Courage dropped. If I can find another nice one-hander that will keep me uncrittable, I may switch around a few points and take the dual-wield talent in Frost (Nerves of Cold Steel) and play with that a little bit.
Normally, all these abilities would have links to WoW Head on them, but alas, a while back I was playing with my template and managed to delete the thing that let me put in WoW Head links. And I had to get that information from Pos, so I don't know how to do it myself. I shall have to pester him tonight.
Showing posts with label talent builds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label talent builds. Show all posts
Friday, April 17, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Giving up the Ghost
... I tried, really I did. And in a perfect world, I did well.
But as soon as I started missing Shadowbolts, my DPS tanked.
And I hit a plateau with my DPS that I felt I should have been above.
So...
I went and got Haunt. Stinky yucky Haunt. And I immediately went to the Heroic Dummy and shot at it a few times and sighed sadly as my DPS effortlessly jumped up higher than I've ever gotten it with intense concentration.
Damn you. Damn you to Hell!
...
Where YOU is Absitively the Warlock, as well as Blizzard in general.
But as soon as I started missing Shadowbolts, my DPS tanked.
And I hit a plateau with my DPS that I felt I should have been above.
So...
I went and got Haunt. Stinky yucky Haunt. And I immediately went to the Heroic Dummy and shot at it a few times and sighed sadly as my DPS effortlessly jumped up higher than I've ever gotten it with intense concentration.
Damn you. Damn you to Hell!
...
Where YOU is Absitively the Warlock, as well as Blizzard in general.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Pushin' 1800
I took Kikidas into a few heroics yesterday (Thank you, Boon!) and watched as her DPS on bosses climbed from approximately 1400 to about 1800 as I got an upgrade here or there.
Granted, as a mostly affliction warlock, my overall DPS still needs some help... but my DPS on bosses was actually pretty nice. I find myself all nostalgic about the good old days.
My rotation on trash is to slap Corr/CoA on them all and then SB spam until I need to reapply.
My rotation on bosses is currently UA, Corr, CoA, SL, SB until I need to reapply. I think this needs working on. I have improved SB, so I may try to hit SB first to apply the debuff before I apply the others. And with the loss of SL coming soon, I will soon be able to start SB spam far sooner. I think I need to go back to the training dummy and smack it around a bit until I'm sure I have the best rotation I can get out of my hybridized spec.
One of the things I took OUT of my talent build was Dark Pact. I love it and I miss it, but with a pet that sometimes winds up dying in boss AoE/Splash damage, I can't rely on it.
So I'm having to be more conscientious of my mana bar than I have been in the past, in terms of when it's safe to life tap and when I may need to drain life or if the healer has the time to spare to catch me up.
Either way, having fun! And.. given that my guild seems to have way too many melee DPS and no ranged DPS, hopefully in a bit I can be an alternative DPS for when we just can't swing another melee'er into the group.
Granted, as a mostly affliction warlock, my overall DPS still needs some help... but my DPS on bosses was actually pretty nice. I find myself all nostalgic about the good old days.
My rotation on trash is to slap Corr/CoA on them all and then SB spam until I need to reapply.
My rotation on bosses is currently UA, Corr, CoA, SL, SB until I need to reapply. I think this needs working on. I have improved SB, so I may try to hit SB first to apply the debuff before I apply the others. And with the loss of SL coming soon, I will soon be able to start SB spam far sooner. I think I need to go back to the training dummy and smack it around a bit until I'm sure I have the best rotation I can get out of my hybridized spec.
One of the things I took OUT of my talent build was Dark Pact. I love it and I miss it, but with a pet that sometimes winds up dying in boss AoE/Splash damage, I can't rely on it.
So I'm having to be more conscientious of my mana bar than I have been in the past, in terms of when it's safe to life tap and when I may need to drain life or if the healer has the time to spare to catch me up.
Either way, having fun! And.. given that my guild seems to have way too many melee DPS and no ranged DPS, hopefully in a bit I can be an alternative DPS for when we just can't swing another melee'er into the group.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Restoration Shaman: Talent Tree
Here is my current build.
I'm going to explain the things that need explaining, rather than the 'No, really?' ones. Or the ones I'm thinking of changing, or some such.
Enhancement:
5/5 Ancestral Knowledge: Because 10% extra intellect is sexy.
3/3 Improved Shields: Because Mana Shield and Earth Shield boosted by 15% is also sexy.
3/5 Thundering Strikes: Actually, I only need 2/5 so I'm going to put this down to lag and me clicking one time too many. However, increased crit strike chance on spells by 3 (or 2)% is pretty nice.
And I need it for:
3/3 Elemental Weapons: Increasing the bonus healing on my Earthliving Weapon by 30%? Now, some may say... big deal, so what? And I've never been very good at figuring out numbers. But it would seem to me that 30% bonus healing ... is good?
Restoration:
3/3 Ancestral Healing: Increases armor by 25%... it's nifty, definately nifty. But I'm thinking of putting these points elsewhere. Especially as thus far, in raid situations, I tend to be on raid healing, and most of the time, those people don't need increased armor.
0 Healing Grace: In raids, you usually aren't worried about threat, not since they boosted the heck out of the threat generation of tanks. And... we really don't have many cases where we're worried about people dispelling our spells. I can see where in PvP that would be quite useful to not have your Earth Shield dispelled from you.
0 Healing Way: This would seem like a big one, and it IS a very nice boost!... if you're using Healing Wave very often. Maybe it's just me, maybe it isn't... but for the vast majority of my healing, I'm not using Healing Wave. I tend to use a lot of Lesser Healing Wave, Riptide, and Chain Heal. I use Healing Way on the tank and usually just need to hit him (or her!) with it just once before I go back to using something else.
0 Nature's Guardian: If I fix Thundering Strikes and possibly move points out of Ancestral Healing, this is where I'd put it. Sure, the 10% healing is nice (but only 10%), but it's the threat reduction that makes me go 'mmmm'. Now, in raiding situations, this is unlikely to either help (one shot = dead = 0 threat anyway!), but in 5-mans (I'm looking at you, Skadi's gauntlet!), losing threat by being hit may help keep you alive. Otherwise, you're having to try to juggle healing the tank, healing yourself, healing the DPS and using Windshock on multiple targets... usually ends in SQUITZH)
2/2 Blessing of the Eternals: Crit by 4%, and increases chance to apply Earthliving by 40% to targets under 35% health? Why would you not take this?
2/2 Improved Chain Heal: Maybe it's the fact that Shaman have an 'AoE' heal that we can spam pretty quickly, which is a smart heal... but I tend to get put on raid healing a lot. So... 20% increase to it. Yesplz.
3/3 Ancestral Awakening: When I crit, someone else pops in and heals the most hurt person by 30% of my crit amount? Small beans, but it's one less thing I have to do immediately.
2/2 Improved Earth Shield: Now, some restoration shamans don't have this, but I think it's pretty important. It goes along the line of 'healing I don't have to actively do', increases charges by 2 (so, instead of 6, they have 8) and increases the healing done by 10%. This gives the tank time to get aggro before I start healing threat, and gives me a chance to drop totems where I want them while the tank is being passively healed.
5/5 Tidal Waves: After Riptide or Chain Heal, my spell casting on my next two Lesser Healing and Healing Wave decreases by 30%. My roughly 2.5 second Healing Wave becomes a roughly 2 second Healing Wave. My Lesser Healing Wave takes a mere second to cast. It also boosts the effect of my Healing and Lesser Healing waves by 20/10%. I consider this such a big boost to how I actually heal that I try to use Riptide or Chain Heal even when I really don't NEED to, to clean up splash damage or some such.
One of the hardest parts of leveling up, for me, is putting in talent points. Because each individual point, by itself, really doesn't mean very much. And you have to plan out where you want things to go so you can get to what you're really after. So, looking at each individual talent and what it does in and of itself, while a nice exercise in 'Hey, that sounds nifty', what I'm really after is the overall effect of the talents put together into a solid whole healy shaman.
Each little part, especially with the addition of glyphs that suit your play style and heal style, make you into one heck of a healbot.
Now, every player will likely talent themselves slightly differently. So please, feel free to poke holes at what I have down here, give your insights to the benefits of ancestral healing, healing way, thundering strikes, elemental weapons... etc.
I'm going to explain the things that need explaining, rather than the 'No, really?' ones. Or the ones I'm thinking of changing, or some such.
Enhancement:
5/5 Ancestral Knowledge: Because 10% extra intellect is sexy.
3/3 Improved Shields: Because Mana Shield and Earth Shield boosted by 15% is also sexy.
3/5 Thundering Strikes: Actually, I only need 2/5 so I'm going to put this down to lag and me clicking one time too many. However, increased crit strike chance on spells by 3 (or 2)% is pretty nice.
And I need it for:
3/3 Elemental Weapons: Increasing the bonus healing on my Earthliving Weapon by 30%? Now, some may say... big deal, so what? And I've never been very good at figuring out numbers. But it would seem to me that 30% bonus healing ... is good?
Restoration:
3/3 Ancestral Healing: Increases armor by 25%... it's nifty, definately nifty. But I'm thinking of putting these points elsewhere. Especially as thus far, in raid situations, I tend to be on raid healing, and most of the time, those people don't need increased armor.
0 Healing Grace: In raids, you usually aren't worried about threat, not since they boosted the heck out of the threat generation of tanks. And... we really don't have many cases where we're worried about people dispelling our spells. I can see where in PvP that would be quite useful to not have your Earth Shield dispelled from you.
0 Healing Way: This would seem like a big one, and it IS a very nice boost!... if you're using Healing Wave very often. Maybe it's just me, maybe it isn't... but for the vast majority of my healing, I'm not using Healing Wave. I tend to use a lot of Lesser Healing Wave, Riptide, and Chain Heal. I use Healing Way on the tank and usually just need to hit him (or her!) with it just once before I go back to using something else.
0 Nature's Guardian: If I fix Thundering Strikes and possibly move points out of Ancestral Healing, this is where I'd put it. Sure, the 10% healing is nice (but only 10%), but it's the threat reduction that makes me go 'mmmm'. Now, in raiding situations, this is unlikely to either help (one shot = dead = 0 threat anyway!), but in 5-mans (I'm looking at you, Skadi's gauntlet!), losing threat by being hit may help keep you alive. Otherwise, you're having to try to juggle healing the tank, healing yourself, healing the DPS and using Windshock on multiple targets... usually ends in SQUITZH)
2/2 Blessing of the Eternals: Crit by 4%, and increases chance to apply Earthliving by 40% to targets under 35% health? Why would you not take this?
2/2 Improved Chain Heal: Maybe it's the fact that Shaman have an 'AoE' heal that we can spam pretty quickly, which is a smart heal... but I tend to get put on raid healing a lot. So... 20% increase to it. Yesplz.
3/3 Ancestral Awakening: When I crit, someone else pops in and heals the most hurt person by 30% of my crit amount? Small beans, but it's one less thing I have to do immediately.
2/2 Improved Earth Shield: Now, some restoration shamans don't have this, but I think it's pretty important. It goes along the line of 'healing I don't have to actively do', increases charges by 2 (so, instead of 6, they have 8) and increases the healing done by 10%. This gives the tank time to get aggro before I start healing threat, and gives me a chance to drop totems where I want them while the tank is being passively healed.
5/5 Tidal Waves: After Riptide or Chain Heal, my spell casting on my next two Lesser Healing and Healing Wave decreases by 30%. My roughly 2.5 second Healing Wave becomes a roughly 2 second Healing Wave. My Lesser Healing Wave takes a mere second to cast. It also boosts the effect of my Healing and Lesser Healing waves by 20/10%. I consider this such a big boost to how I actually heal that I try to use Riptide or Chain Heal even when I really don't NEED to, to clean up splash damage or some such.
One of the hardest parts of leveling up, for me, is putting in talent points. Because each individual point, by itself, really doesn't mean very much. And you have to plan out where you want things to go so you can get to what you're really after. So, looking at each individual talent and what it does in and of itself, while a nice exercise in 'Hey, that sounds nifty', what I'm really after is the overall effect of the talents put together into a solid whole healy shaman.
Each little part, especially with the addition of glyphs that suit your play style and heal style, make you into one heck of a healbot.
Now, every player will likely talent themselves slightly differently. So please, feel free to poke holes at what I have down here, give your insights to the benefits of ancestral healing, healing way, thundering strikes, elemental weapons... etc.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Warlock: Potential Level 80 Build
So, I obviously just blogged about what I may try to do later in the game. And I'm thinking this may be it.
Devastation vs. Haunt
I opted to go with Devastation versus Haunt. This means I don't get Everlasting Affliction to rebuff my Corruption, unless I decide to use Drain Life in the middle of a fight, but if I'm planning on keeping Shadow Bolt as a good portion of my spell rotation (and yes, I have to play with this, a LOT, because I have no idea what the spell rotation will be, or how applicable keeping SB in my rotation will be... Geeze people, I'm only level 73. I'm not clairvoyant.), I'd rather have 5% crit for said yummy-bolts-of-death and worry about the GCD instead. Besides which, what I said previously about the Haunt-Spell-Cycle precluding Shadowbolting still holds true....
I will miss the boost to DoT effects that Haunt gives. Damnit.
No More Shadowburn
While Shadowburn is going to figure highly in my leveling build, because damnit I LIKE it and it's so nice to have an instant cast spell to finish off that mob that's just so annoyingly clinging to life... let's face it, on boss fights, it usually isn't applicable unless you have a zillion and ten shards to spare. Granted, I loved using it on the Curator during Evocation, shard be damned, but overall, not as useful as something else would be. So sadly, in my proposed level 80 spec, it goes buhbye.
Unstable Affliction and Pandemic
I'm a leeeetle iffy on this right now, basically because currently my crit chance is 13%. Which means if I spend the points in UA and Pandemic right now, I have a 13% chance / tick of causing 100% more damage from that tick? That's how I'm reading it right now. Anyone see anything different? Currently, I plan on keeping it, because if I am going to go with a hybrid spec, I imagine that I'll be boosting my spell crit chance a bit more than I was.
Destruction!
Damnit, I'm looking deeper at the Destruction tree and I see some things that are making me twitch with desire. But I'll play with Affliction first before I see if the grass is indeed greener on the other side.
COMMENTS WELCOME
Please, unload your thoughts if you have a lock, especially a level 80 lock, about what I'm thinking. I won't be offended really. I've done hybrid before when everyone was telling me I was a dummy, so I'll really be okay with you guys saying I shouldn't be hybrid. But what I'm really looking for is commentary in the form of, "Have you considered this hybrid spec, because of X, Y and Z".
Devastation vs. Haunt
I opted to go with Devastation versus Haunt. This means I don't get Everlasting Affliction to rebuff my Corruption, unless I decide to use Drain Life in the middle of a fight, but if I'm planning on keeping Shadow Bolt as a good portion of my spell rotation (and yes, I have to play with this, a LOT, because I have no idea what the spell rotation will be, or how applicable keeping SB in my rotation will be... Geeze people, I'm only level 73. I'm not clairvoyant.), I'd rather have 5% crit for said yummy-bolts-of-death and worry about the GCD instead. Besides which, what I said previously about the Haunt-Spell-Cycle precluding Shadowbolting still holds true....
I will miss the boost to DoT effects that Haunt gives. Damnit.
No More Shadowburn
While Shadowburn is going to figure highly in my leveling build, because damnit I LIKE it and it's so nice to have an instant cast spell to finish off that mob that's just so annoyingly clinging to life... let's face it, on boss fights, it usually isn't applicable unless you have a zillion and ten shards to spare. Granted, I loved using it on the Curator during Evocation, shard be damned, but overall, not as useful as something else would be. So sadly, in my proposed level 80 spec, it goes buhbye.
Unstable Affliction and Pandemic
I'm a leeeetle iffy on this right now, basically because currently my crit chance is 13%. Which means if I spend the points in UA and Pandemic right now, I have a 13% chance / tick of causing 100% more damage from that tick? That's how I'm reading it right now. Anyone see anything different? Currently, I plan on keeping it, because if I am going to go with a hybrid spec, I imagine that I'll be boosting my spell crit chance a bit more than I was.
Destruction!
Damnit, I'm looking deeper at the Destruction tree and I see some things that are making me twitch with desire. But I'll play with Affliction first before I see if the grass is indeed greener on the other side.
COMMENTS WELCOME
Please, unload your thoughts if you have a lock, especially a level 80 lock, about what I'm thinking. I won't be offended really. I've done hybrid before when everyone was telling me I was a dummy, so I'll really be okay with you guys saying I shouldn't be hybrid. But what I'm really looking for is commentary in the form of, "Have you considered this hybrid spec, because of X, Y and Z".
Kikidas @ 73 : 43/0/21
That's right. I respecced.
And not surprisingly, I'm enjoying it more than I was. I do plan on going as deep into affliction as I can, while trying to retain my Devastation, Ruin and Shadowburn. Which won't work for anyone, but I'll play with it.
What do I mean by it won't work? We'll touch on that in a second.
Also not surprisingly... I'm not dying anymore.
I know it's just a matter of playstyle. Lots of warlocks dot up tons of mobs and kite them around in circles until they all die.
And yes, that is hilariously fun, but it doesn't suit my playstyle.
Now, why won't Devastation and Ruin work for deep affliction? First of all, to get Haunt, you can't get Devastation.
Secondly, everything I'm reading of a full deep affliction cycle has barely any time to cast even the occasional SB to get the debuff from ISB, or if you're going for Shadows Embrace before you hit the mob with Haunt... that why should I have Ruin (increases crit bonus of my destruction spells by 100% at max rank)? I won't ever be casting it. Arguably it would increase the crit bonus of my Immolate, but really?
So I have a lot of playing to do.
So saying, my hare-brained hybrid spec worked well for me in TBC, even though no one else I knew had something anything close to it.
Maybe a new hare-brained hybrid spec will work for me in WotLK too.
We'll have to see what I can come up with, shall we?
And not surprisingly, I'm enjoying it more than I was. I do plan on going as deep into affliction as I can, while trying to retain my Devastation, Ruin and Shadowburn. Which won't work for anyone, but I'll play with it.
What do I mean by it won't work? We'll touch on that in a second.
Also not surprisingly... I'm not dying anymore.
I know it's just a matter of playstyle. Lots of warlocks dot up tons of mobs and kite them around in circles until they all die.
And yes, that is hilariously fun, but it doesn't suit my playstyle.
Now, why won't Devastation and Ruin work for deep affliction? First of all, to get Haunt, you can't get Devastation.
Secondly, everything I'm reading of a full deep affliction cycle has barely any time to cast even the occasional SB to get the debuff from ISB, or if you're going for Shadows Embrace before you hit the mob with Haunt... that why should I have Ruin (increases crit bonus of my destruction spells by 100% at max rank)? I won't ever be casting it. Arguably it would increase the crit bonus of my Immolate, but really?
So I have a lot of playing to do.
So saying, my hare-brained hybrid spec worked well for me in TBC, even though no one else I knew had something anything close to it.
Maybe a new hare-brained hybrid spec will work for me in WotLK too.
We'll have to see what I can come up with, shall we?
Monday, January 5, 2009
Restoration Shaman: Mana Regen
Most of you may be wondering... why am I reading about a restoration shaman on a blog that's titled 'More Dots' and has a picture of a firey woman (presumably a warlock) as it's avatar?
Yeah, I don't know why either. But here you are!
So moment of 'Eeee!' here. I put up my email address and haven't had anyone email me... until now!
Eeeee!
Could it be a spoof? Possssibly. But I will put my faith in the anonymity of the internet!
The question ... is more of a rambling question! It's about mana regeneration for restoration shamans in a fight that involves a lot of movement.
Without our Mana Spring Totem, we're as dependent on spirit for our mana regeneration as any other class, right? Well... sort of.
(Yeah, go ahead. Go there. Look at it. LOOK AT IT! And then go crosseyed and stop looking... stop looking. Really, quit it. Come back here now. Numbers make you go insane, don't you know that?)
While spirit is still a mana regeneration stat for us, and indeed, a certain level of mp5 is very advisable for any raid or heroic... we do have other options.
First: Water Shield
Improved Water Shield - This ability is in our third tier on the restoration tree, requiring 10 points to get. Our Water Shield at max rank gives back 400 mana per 'globe' and a passive 100 mp5.
Water Shield costs NO MANA to cast. Water Shield should be up ALL THE TIME. As soon as it drops off, pop it back on.
If you're worried about GCD, get Glyph of Water Shield and Glyph of Water Mastery for an additional 'globe' and to boost the passive mana regen effect of the water shield.
Second: Totems
Mana Tide Totem has a 5 minute cooldown, which sucks, but returns 24% of your mana in 12 seconds. Additionally, Glyph of Mana Tide Totem will increase that return an additional 4% of mana.
Now, I hear you say, "But you already said this was for a moving fight!" ... yes. And so you may not get the full benefit of this totem if you have to move more than 30yards away from it.
Whatever fight you're fighting, try to pick a place to slap down ALL of your totems that will hopefully allow you to be within 30 yards of them no matter where you are.
Typically, when I'm in a fight where I'm going to have to be dodging around, I try to pick the 'center' of the fighting area and slap down all my totems, even if it means for a few seconds I'm standing on top of the tank and the boss.
My rule of thumb? Know your fight. If you know you'll have a chance to sit still for 12 seconds while the boss does something, and you're even close to 24% mana down? Pop your Mana Tide Totem. Pop it early so that if it's a long fight, you may be able to use it a second time. (This is also my rule of thumb for Shadowfiend for priests. Use it early so you can use it a second time if the fight is lingering.)
Know your ground. Find a place you can set down your totems. It seems to me that most totems are not affected by AoE abilities and have to be deliberately targetted to be destroyed, despite their low hit points. So even if you have a boss that has an AoE ability, they should still survive and hopefully provide good benefits to everyone in the party.
Thirdly: Talents and Glyphs
Make sure you have all the healing boosting abilities you can get. Things that boost the amount you heal either directly (Glyph of Lesser Healing Wave, Tidal Waves and Purification) or indirectly (Glyph of Earthliving Weapon, Ancestral Awakening), things that increase your crit chance (Tidal Force and Blessing of the Eternals) so you get more bang for your buck (and possibly use up a water charge).
The less time you spend casting, the more passive mana regen you will gain from spirit and mp5. Earth Shield can be boosted with Improved Earth Shield and Riptide will decrease the amount of time you spend actively healing, as well as boost the effects of your lesser healing wave (if glyphed for it) and chain healing if required.
Don't be afraid to use things that have cooldowns. Early and often.
And last but not least... water shield, water shield, water shield.
I have a hard time sometimes remembernig to put it back on myself, especially when I'm casting a lot.
But your tank will die if you run out of mana, but will live long enough (hopefully!) for you to slap a water shield on yourself.
Like any healing class, it's about pacing yourself and your mana. Watch your overhealing. If you have multiple healers, make sure you communicate with them on who you're healing to avoid overhealing.
If you're running low on mana, but some other healer has a metric ton of it, ask them to take over to let some passive mp5 tick away.
If it's an issue where you're overhealing a lot because the other healer is getting to them faster... was it a required 'faster'? Or are they stepping on your healing toes/assignments?
There's more to evaluating who is the best healer than who heals for more.
I hope that helps my questioner!
Yeah, I don't know why either. But here you are!
So moment of 'Eeee!' here. I put up my email address and haven't had anyone email me... until now!
Eeeee!
Could it be a spoof? Possssibly. But I will put my faith in the anonymity of the internet!
The question ... is more of a rambling question! It's about mana regeneration for restoration shamans in a fight that involves a lot of movement.
Without our Mana Spring Totem, we're as dependent on spirit for our mana regeneration as any other class, right? Well... sort of.
(Yeah, go ahead. Go there. Look at it. LOOK AT IT! And then go crosseyed and stop looking... stop looking. Really, quit it. Come back here now. Numbers make you go insane, don't you know that?)
While spirit is still a mana regeneration stat for us, and indeed, a certain level of mp5 is very advisable for any raid or heroic... we do have other options.
First: Water Shield
Improved Water Shield - This ability is in our third tier on the restoration tree, requiring 10 points to get. Our Water Shield at max rank gives back 400 mana per 'globe' and a passive 100 mp5.
Water Shield costs NO MANA to cast. Water Shield should be up ALL THE TIME. As soon as it drops off, pop it back on.
If you're worried about GCD, get Glyph of Water Shield and Glyph of Water Mastery for an additional 'globe' and to boost the passive mana regen effect of the water shield.
Second: Totems
Mana Tide Totem has a 5 minute cooldown, which sucks, but returns 24% of your mana in 12 seconds. Additionally, Glyph of Mana Tide Totem will increase that return an additional 4% of mana.
Now, I hear you say, "But you already said this was for a moving fight!" ... yes. And so you may not get the full benefit of this totem if you have to move more than 30yards away from it.
Whatever fight you're fighting, try to pick a place to slap down ALL of your totems that will hopefully allow you to be within 30 yards of them no matter where you are.
Typically, when I'm in a fight where I'm going to have to be dodging around, I try to pick the 'center' of the fighting area and slap down all my totems, even if it means for a few seconds I'm standing on top of the tank and the boss.
My rule of thumb? Know your fight. If you know you'll have a chance to sit still for 12 seconds while the boss does something, and you're even close to 24% mana down? Pop your Mana Tide Totem. Pop it early so that if it's a long fight, you may be able to use it a second time. (This is also my rule of thumb for Shadowfiend for priests. Use it early so you can use it a second time if the fight is lingering.)
Know your ground. Find a place you can set down your totems. It seems to me that most totems are not affected by AoE abilities and have to be deliberately targetted to be destroyed, despite their low hit points. So even if you have a boss that has an AoE ability, they should still survive and hopefully provide good benefits to everyone in the party.
Thirdly: Talents and Glyphs
Make sure you have all the healing boosting abilities you can get. Things that boost the amount you heal either directly (Glyph of Lesser Healing Wave, Tidal Waves and Purification) or indirectly (Glyph of Earthliving Weapon, Ancestral Awakening), things that increase your crit chance (Tidal Force and Blessing of the Eternals) so you get more bang for your buck (and possibly use up a water charge).
The less time you spend casting, the more passive mana regen you will gain from spirit and mp5. Earth Shield can be boosted with Improved Earth Shield and Riptide will decrease the amount of time you spend actively healing, as well as boost the effects of your lesser healing wave (if glyphed for it) and chain healing if required.
Don't be afraid to use things that have cooldowns. Early and often.
And last but not least... water shield, water shield, water shield.
I have a hard time sometimes remembernig to put it back on myself, especially when I'm casting a lot.
But your tank will die if you run out of mana, but will live long enough (hopefully!) for you to slap a water shield on yourself.
Like any healing class, it's about pacing yourself and your mana. Watch your overhealing. If you have multiple healers, make sure you communicate with them on who you're healing to avoid overhealing.
If you're running low on mana, but some other healer has a metric ton of it, ask them to take over to let some passive mp5 tick away.
If it's an issue where you're overhealing a lot because the other healer is getting to them faster... was it a required 'faster'? Or are they stepping on your healing toes/assignments?
There's more to evaluating who is the best healer than who heals for more.
I hope that helps my questioner!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Assassination: Kava
It has been a while since Kava got some love.
Way back in 'nilla WoW, she was subtlty/assassination. This was before I knew about websites and talent calculators and when it was just me and Boon duo-ing the world.
I read somewhere, and no, I don't remember where or who or when, but somewhere... about Assassination being the 'new' Combat. By that, since pre-patch Combat was considered the raid spec, I took to mean that assassination would be the new raid spec.
So I took a looksee down assassination to see what there was to see. I wish I could post my build, except that Blizzard's armory seems to think Kava is currently a talentless hack. So I can't. Other than to say that I'm now an assassin.
A few things I've learned while fiddling with assassination:
- sometimes my DPS is in the 500's. Sometimes it's peaking over 1000. The difference depends on how many extra combo points I get back, energy return, and the randomness of crit chance. Some of it also depends on attack rotation, which I don't have down just yet. I'm working on it. Any suggestions, speak up!
- Mutilate and Backstab cost the same energy to use (60). Backstab requires you to be behind the target and have a dagger in your main hand. It does more damage on a hit/crit. Mutilate does not require you to be behind the target, nor does it indicate that you need a dagger in your main hand (not sure if it does or does not, since Kava uses daggers, but the tooltip is quiet on the issue). It does somewhat less damage on a hit/crit (100/400) but gives you 2 combo points. It does additional damage if the target is poisoned too.
- Hunger for Blood gives you a 6% increased damage when stacked 3 times. You can keep it up indefinately between fights, just make sure to not lose it when in the heat of battle. (It also does not work pre-arena, you have to activate it once the doors open. Why? I don't know.)
- Cut to the Chase gives you a 100% chance to refresh your Slice and Dice to a full 5 point duration. What does this mean? You open with any move that gives you one (or two) combo points. You hit slice and dice. If you're lucky, Ruthlessness will give you a combo point and you can immediately eviscerate or envenom. This will turn your 7s Slice and Dice into a 20s Slice and Dice. Or you can open, slice and dice, mutilate and if you time it right, before your original S&D wears off, you eviscerate or envenom then for more damage and still 20s on your slice and dice.
- If your S&D is up, and your Hunger for Blood is up, and your tank is chain pulling and you don't have time to stealth, or decide to NOT stealth... you can run up, mutilate (and if you have Vigor) wait a heartbeat, mutilate again and wind up with a 4 point combo right away. Which is very nice and makes the tanks twitch. Which is always fun to do.
Some thoughts:
- Is it more beneficial to mutilate to start, then just hit eviscerate if ruthlessness procs until it no longer procs? Or is it more beneficial to mutilate, mutilate then eviscerate. And if ruthlessness procs, just means you get a 5 point combo instead of a 4 point combo? I'm not good at the theorycrafting behind the numbers. So I can't figure it out, even though I have access to the formula.
- I haven't taken points in Deadly Brew or the other poison specific ones. If I did, would envenom then become my finishing move of choice? What are other rogue's thoughts on poisons?
As always, thoughts, comments and criticisms are welcome!
(And no, when I originally made the concept of an assassin named Kava, I did not know about the drink, kava. Kava'Ashen was the name of a character in a short story I wrote when I was in highschool/college. When I started WoW and made a rogue, naturally the name Kava was what I picked.)
Way back in 'nilla WoW, she was subtlty/assassination. This was before I knew about websites and talent calculators and when it was just me and Boon duo-ing the world.
I read somewhere, and no, I don't remember where or who or when, but somewhere... about Assassination being the 'new' Combat. By that, since pre-patch Combat was considered the raid spec, I took to mean that assassination would be the new raid spec.
So I took a looksee down assassination to see what there was to see. I wish I could post my build, except that Blizzard's armory seems to think Kava is currently a talentless hack. So I can't. Other than to say that I'm now an assassin.
A few things I've learned while fiddling with assassination:
- sometimes my DPS is in the 500's. Sometimes it's peaking over 1000. The difference depends on how many extra combo points I get back, energy return, and the randomness of crit chance. Some of it also depends on attack rotation, which I don't have down just yet. I'm working on it. Any suggestions, speak up!
- Mutilate and Backstab cost the same energy to use (60). Backstab requires you to be behind the target and have a dagger in your main hand. It does more damage on a hit/crit. Mutilate does not require you to be behind the target, nor does it indicate that you need a dagger in your main hand (not sure if it does or does not, since Kava uses daggers, but the tooltip is quiet on the issue). It does somewhat less damage on a hit/crit (100/400) but gives you 2 combo points. It does additional damage if the target is poisoned too.
- Hunger for Blood gives you a 6% increased damage when stacked 3 times. You can keep it up indefinately between fights, just make sure to not lose it when in the heat of battle. (It also does not work pre-arena, you have to activate it once the doors open. Why? I don't know.)
- Cut to the Chase gives you a 100% chance to refresh your Slice and Dice to a full 5 point duration. What does this mean? You open with any move that gives you one (or two) combo points. You hit slice and dice. If you're lucky, Ruthlessness will give you a combo point and you can immediately eviscerate or envenom. This will turn your 7s Slice and Dice into a 20s Slice and Dice. Or you can open, slice and dice, mutilate and if you time it right, before your original S&D wears off, you eviscerate or envenom then for more damage and still 20s on your slice and dice.
- If your S&D is up, and your Hunger for Blood is up, and your tank is chain pulling and you don't have time to stealth, or decide to NOT stealth... you can run up, mutilate (and if you have Vigor) wait a heartbeat, mutilate again and wind up with a 4 point combo right away. Which is very nice and makes the tanks twitch. Which is always fun to do.
Some thoughts:
- Is it more beneficial to mutilate to start, then just hit eviscerate if ruthlessness procs until it no longer procs? Or is it more beneficial to mutilate, mutilate then eviscerate. And if ruthlessness procs, just means you get a 5 point combo instead of a 4 point combo? I'm not good at the theorycrafting behind the numbers. So I can't figure it out, even though I have access to the formula.
- I haven't taken points in Deadly Brew or the other poison specific ones. If I did, would envenom then become my finishing move of choice? What are other rogue's thoughts on poisons?
As always, thoughts, comments and criticisms are welcome!
(And no, when I originally made the concept of an assassin named Kava, I did not know about the drink, kava. Kava'Ashen was the name of a character in a short story I wrote when I was in highschool/college. When I started WoW and made a rogue, naturally the name Kava was what I picked.)
Spread the Word: Retribution Paladin Reworked
This little thing is courtesy of someone named Peregrine.
Whether or not it will ever be seen? Whether or not it will ever be tested?
Who knows! But take a looksee and give yourself some nice daydreams about if it were true.
Whether or not it will ever be seen? Whether or not it will ever be tested?
Who knows! But take a looksee and give yourself some nice daydreams about if it were true.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Discipline Priest
Granted, Karazhan has been nerfed, and our group is way overgeared for it...
... but Discipline Priest is fun. And has good utility!
Now, when the dual-spec ability becomes available, maybe I'll do something else, but for right now, Disc gives me the utility that I want.
A holy paladin, for the most part, can't DPS. A holy priest, for the most part, can't DPS. A discipline priest can heal when healing is required and DPS when healing is not required.
Granted, I will not be putting out the numbers that a Shadow Priest can put out, but if there isn't a need for two healers at the moment... I can push 400 DPS, and that's with probably a crappy rotation and I know for a fact that I wasn't chain-casting. Imagine what I could do if I actually tried?
The things about Disc that I'm enjoying... the mana regen. Nummy nummy mana regen. I get mana back when I heal. I get mana back when I shield. I use less mana when I cast. I have more mana total. I get more mana back when casting. With the disappearance of downranking (I used to downrank alllllllll the time. I never ran out of mana, but that was because I healed you for just as much as you needed, and barely a whit more. Was I always casting? Yes. But I was efficient, damnit! Now I either overheal, or wait until you drop 4-5k health before I cast. Actually... I've started to dance. I start a heal... esc. Start a heal... esc. Until it's time to let the heal actual go through. Oy.) this is a yummy yummy aspect to Discipline that I'm getting a kick out of. I still don't have mana issues. Which the mana issue wasn't as big of a deal as people were crying it would be, but I'm still happy to see my mp5 while not casting is 800+ buffed, and 300 when casting buffed. (500/someothernumber notcasting/casting unbuffed). It makes for a happy priest.
I don't have my priest loaded right now, so I can't give particulars, but I have a threat reduction that can be applied not only to any person in the party/raid, but also then reduces the damage that person takes. Pain Suppression, iirc. (And it's too late for me to go linking things, sorry.)
My improved divine spirit not only increases your spirit, but increases your spell power by 100% of the spirit increase.
My heals provide you with 1-3% damage reduction and 2-6% increased healing from me (Grace, stacks up to 3 times).
I can power infuse someone (or myself!) for better DPS (or healing!) every 3 minutes. This is basically an extra trinket.
Now, I realize this post makes almost no real sense nor does it have a true goal other than for me to bubble about my disc priest... But keep some things in mind. 1: I'm running on 2days with only 3 hours of sleep and 2: It's 12:30am and I'm finally sleepy, so I'm going to crash.
Have a great evening, Azeroth.
... but Discipline Priest is fun. And has good utility!
Now, when the dual-spec ability becomes available, maybe I'll do something else, but for right now, Disc gives me the utility that I want.
A holy paladin, for the most part, can't DPS. A holy priest, for the most part, can't DPS. A discipline priest can heal when healing is required and DPS when healing is not required.
Granted, I will not be putting out the numbers that a Shadow Priest can put out, but if there isn't a need for two healers at the moment... I can push 400 DPS, and that's with probably a crappy rotation and I know for a fact that I wasn't chain-casting. Imagine what I could do if I actually tried?
The things about Disc that I'm enjoying... the mana regen. Nummy nummy mana regen. I get mana back when I heal. I get mana back when I shield. I use less mana when I cast. I have more mana total. I get more mana back when casting. With the disappearance of downranking (I used to downrank alllllllll the time. I never ran out of mana, but that was because I healed you for just as much as you needed, and barely a whit more. Was I always casting? Yes. But I was efficient, damnit! Now I either overheal, or wait until you drop 4-5k health before I cast. Actually... I've started to dance. I start a heal... esc. Start a heal... esc. Until it's time to let the heal actual go through. Oy.) this is a yummy yummy aspect to Discipline that I'm getting a kick out of. I still don't have mana issues. Which the mana issue wasn't as big of a deal as people were crying it would be, but I'm still happy to see my mp5 while not casting is 800+ buffed, and 300 when casting buffed. (500/someothernumber notcasting/casting unbuffed). It makes for a happy priest.
I don't have my priest loaded right now, so I can't give particulars, but I have a threat reduction that can be applied not only to any person in the party/raid, but also then reduces the damage that person takes. Pain Suppression, iirc. (And it's too late for me to go linking things, sorry.)
My improved divine spirit not only increases your spirit, but increases your spell power by 100% of the spirit increase.
My heals provide you with 1-3% damage reduction and 2-6% increased healing from me (Grace, stacks up to 3 times).
I can power infuse someone (or myself!) for better DPS (or healing!) every 3 minutes. This is basically an extra trinket.
Now, I realize this post makes almost no real sense nor does it have a true goal other than for me to bubble about my disc priest... But keep some things in mind. 1: I'm running on 2days with only 3 hours of sleep and 2: It's 12:30am and I'm finally sleepy, so I'm going to crash.
Have a great evening, Azeroth.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
I'm not bad, I'm just specced that way...
(Obviously, I stole the line from Jessica Rabbit...)
Pre-BC, hybrid classes could do just about any of their roles without having to be specially designed. A shadow priest, with appropriate gear, could heal. A retadin could, with a sword and board, tank. And yes, they obviously won't be as good as people who are designed to do those roles, but they can get the job done decently and adequately. Even well, if they're a good player and have appropriate gear. (ie: don't try to bear tank in cloth healing gear)
Once you hit the Burning Crusade and Outlands, it becomes a slightly different story. You start getting to where you're expected to be the spec that you are impersonating. Can you still switch-hit? Yes, sure. And probably still do a good job. But you start to get to where you need to have the special abilities and spells that deep in particular trees may give you.
Hybrid Class roles that overlap:
There are a few hybrid class roles that can overlap (with the caveat that the secondary role is not as good as someone whose primary role it is) and they can overlap well with good players.
Boon, the healadin, can become a tankadin. His paladin is specced such that with a simple change of gear, and being the awesome player that he is, he can main tank the 70 instances (regular). He's even OT'd in Karazhan leading up to Curator when we had one of our tanks step out to allow more DPS in on the Curator fight. He can hold aggro well, provided that the DPS classes understand that he is not a tankadin and thus does not have Avenger's Shield and some of the nifty abilities that help them generate threat. He has to build threat slightly different, but he does it well.
However, he doesn't delude himself into thinking he can main tank a heroic, or main tank Karazhan, or even OT Karazhan for more than a single pull here or there. And when people say 'Hey, we need a tank, Boon, come tank for us!'... if it's a heroic, he says "Are you nuts?"
Feral Druids can be either melee DPS or tanks. This involves mainly a gear change, and maybe 3 points swapped about, but with little other need for changing their talents around, they can do both respectably.
I'm sure there are others -- Chickens masquerading as Deleafed Trees, Lightning Casting space goats pretending to be Healing Wave surfers. The question is... can they pull it off? Not merely the spec that they don't have, but the gear, the ability, the understanding?
I think they can, if they have the ability to understand what they lack and how to make up for what they lack. No Earth Shield? How do you get around that? No Swiftmend? How do you get around that?
And most importantly, if you're playing 'offspec', let the other members in the group know it. Don't surprise them one pull from the final boss, after an instance rife with 'damn, I died again.' moments, say 'I'm specced elemental.' (which I suppose is at least better than 'I'm specced enhancement.')
Pre-BC, hybrid classes could do just about any of their roles without having to be specially designed. A shadow priest, with appropriate gear, could heal. A retadin could, with a sword and board, tank. And yes, they obviously won't be as good as people who are designed to do those roles, but they can get the job done decently and adequately. Even well, if they're a good player and have appropriate gear. (ie: don't try to bear tank in cloth healing gear)
Once you hit the Burning Crusade and Outlands, it becomes a slightly different story. You start getting to where you're expected to be the spec that you are impersonating. Can you still switch-hit? Yes, sure. And probably still do a good job. But you start to get to where you need to have the special abilities and spells that deep in particular trees may give you.
Hybrid Class roles that overlap:
There are a few hybrid class roles that can overlap (with the caveat that the secondary role is not as good as someone whose primary role it is) and they can overlap well with good players.
Boon, the healadin, can become a tankadin. His paladin is specced such that with a simple change of gear, and being the awesome player that he is, he can main tank the 70 instances (regular). He's even OT'd in Karazhan leading up to Curator when we had one of our tanks step out to allow more DPS in on the Curator fight. He can hold aggro well, provided that the DPS classes understand that he is not a tankadin and thus does not have Avenger's Shield and some of the nifty abilities that help them generate threat. He has to build threat slightly different, but he does it well.
However, he doesn't delude himself into thinking he can main tank a heroic, or main tank Karazhan, or even OT Karazhan for more than a single pull here or there. And when people say 'Hey, we need a tank, Boon, come tank for us!'... if it's a heroic, he says "Are you nuts?"
Feral Druids can be either melee DPS or tanks. This involves mainly a gear change, and maybe 3 points swapped about, but with little other need for changing their talents around, they can do both respectably.
I'm sure there are others -- Chickens masquerading as Deleafed Trees, Lightning Casting space goats pretending to be Healing Wave surfers. The question is... can they pull it off? Not merely the spec that they don't have, but the gear, the ability, the understanding?
I think they can, if they have the ability to understand what they lack and how to make up for what they lack. No Earth Shield? How do you get around that? No Swiftmend? How do you get around that?
And most importantly, if you're playing 'offspec', let the other members in the group know it. Don't surprise them one pull from the final boss, after an instance rife with 'damn, I died again.' moments, say 'I'm specced elemental.' (which I suppose is at least better than 'I'm specced enhancement.')
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Bear Tank Basics, By K the Warlock
I have altisms disease. I freely admit it. But it isn't a problem. I can do my job well no matter what alt I'm currently afflicted with. Admittedly, some alts I do better with than others, but I still do a good job.
Lately, I've been afflicted with druidism. It's a nasty smelly disease that sometimes turns me into a cat, bear, bird or some odd sea mammal that I think is supposed to be a sea cow.
What? You've never read The White Seal by Rudyard Kipling? Either read the short story (which is good) or look up sea cow in a dictionary.
Anyway...
With my variety of disease, I sometimes become afflicted for short periods of time, during which I'll instance or farm or just have fun. This time, I've become afflicted with the desire to tank. Kathe, my druid, has been a tank since the early 60's. Before that, she was some resto/balance hybrid I think for solo-leveling. Don't ask me, I'm weird.
Without using any of Big Bear Butt's Druid Tank List gear (at least, not knowingly!) I was tanking Shadow Labs, Steamvaults, Shattered Halls. And doing it well. I wasn't uncrittable (defense in the mid 300's). I had somewhat lowish hit points (for a dire bear, that's in the neighborhood of 11k) and somewhat lowish armor points (13k). I had a good healer and good party members, which as in all things, can make up for my lack in gear.
But K, I hear someone ask in the background, you already have a tank, a warrior. Why a second tank?
Because it's different. Because druid is fun. Because I want to. Question answered.
It's true, I do have a warrior. She's all in blues. She's uncrittable. Not sure about uncrushable. She has good armor for a non-raiding-heroicing-Karaing-warrior, she has good hit points as well given the same caveat. But aggro management is so different.
With a warrior, it's all about the devastate and revenge and shield bash and stance-dancing and intervene and intercept and this shout and that shout. Which is hugely enjoyable, don't get me wrong. But so very very different from bear tanking.
With a bear, it's all about the lacerate. Oh, there are a few other things too, but lacerate lacerate lacerate... and omen of clarity. <3 Omen of Clarity. Oh, what's that? 100% reduction in rage cost? MUAHAHAHAHA! Warlocks need a skill like that. Instant cast shadow-bolt with 100% mana reduction and 100% increased damage. That's not asking much, is it?
(By the way, <3 is a sideways heart. Short for love.)
I play a game with my druid tank. If I lose aggro or don't have aggro on something, I don't taunt it. I know, I should. But I see how many lacerates it takes to pull it off of something (with the caveat that I'm in the neighborhood of their threat. If I was tanking against my own warlock, I wouldn't be trying the lacerate-game. I'm assuming an 'on par with me' group.). My average is 2 lacerates and I have aggro back. Without taunt. It's much fun. Of course, you do need to have a decent healer for this lacerate-game, because depending on what is hitting said poor-punching bag, they may not last two lacerates. But usually they do regardless of healing, otherwise they probably don't have any business being in a regular instance. (Mind you, I am not talking heroics).
So... the basics. I'm 0/47/14. The 14 in restoration include the 5 points in furor, 5 points in naturalist, 3 points in intensity and 1 point in the above-mentioned omen of clarity.
With intensity, I have the ability to instantly generate 10 rage with enrage. So, if for some reason I'm in bear form and I don't want to switch out and in again (because I have the nifty ability to generate 10 rage instantly when I transform into bear), I tap enrage and boom, instant 10 rage. Sure I take a hit in armor when I do that, but when it's needed, it's there. With omen of clarity, I build threat faster because I don't need as much rage to lacerate the hell out of something.
(It's also useful in cat form for those times I'm killing something solo. You pounce to stun, mangle to increase your damage from the cat-backstab ability, and then hopefully at some point in time, Omen's popped, which means you can usually backstab immediately, before the stun effect of the pounce wears off.)
The other 47 are in, naturally, feral combat. Obviously, anything that pertains only to cat-form, I have 0 points in. I'm not a DPS-feral. I'm a tank-feral. I won't go down the list of what points I put where, since those are probably pretty self-explanatory.
So, the average fight starts. If I have adequate crowd control and I have only one mob to worry about at a time, I charge. Charge has the bonus of getting me there faster and stunning the mob in place for a few seconds. So even if I have DPS that opens up before I have a chance to hit it, the mob isn't going to be running all over the place just yet. (Caveat is that it's in safe range TO charge, if it's too near other mobs, I don't charge, I faerie fire, back up, THEN charge.)
Since the mob is hitting me (as I'm right there), and I'm hitting it (because I'm there too!), I almost immediately have enough rage to lacerate twice. Then I usually mangle. Everytime the cooldown for mangle is up, I mangle. I lacerate until I have stacked 5 lacerates on the mob. If the CC isn't up by me, I then add swipe and maul into the mix. Swipe, though not as much threat/damage as maul, has the benefit of being instant. I lacerate when it's up. I mangle when it's up. Even though I have 5 lacerates stacked on the mob, I continue to lacerate. It doesn't continue to stack, but it does continue to generate threat.
Usually BEFORE the first mob is dead, I turn, find the next mob I'm killing, and feral charge it. Chances are, unless the first mob is a healer, it will be dead shortly. (I do this when the first mob is about 5% alive). If it's a healer, I stay on it to make sure.
The benefit of charging the 2nd mob in the line before the first is dead is that my aggro-whoring DPS group members have to finish killing the first mob BEFORE they can switch to the second mob. This gives me adequate time to be able to land a few lacerates and at least one mangle before they start in on this mob. This allows me to hold aggro better. This strategy works with my warrior too (sans lacerate and mangle, she has to do things with a weapon and shield, not just teeth and claws). I don't worry about losing aggro on mob #1 in the last few pathetic moments of it's life. If my DPS is adequate, (by that, I mean group DPS, not MINE in particular), it will die before it 1: switches off of me and onto someone else or 2: before it reaches said someone else.
(On the flip side, I do this with DPS as well. If I'm DPSing, in the last few (10 and lower) percentage points of it's life, I tend to up my DPS as much as I can. If I pull aggro off of the tank, no big deal. It's dead before it hits me anyway.)
So, feral charge #2 and lacerate-lacerate. I should have more than enough rage that this is immediately doable. The feral charge locks it in place so it can't go after whomever CC'd it, and since no one else was hitting it (or should have been hitting it), I gain immediate aggro control.
#3, #4, etc. on down the line!
Now, there will be times when I have to multi-tank targets. No problem. A little dicier, but that just adds to the fun!
So, I have X and Y. (I picked Y because Y is easier to type than Skull.). X is second, Y is my skull so it dies first.
I'm in caster form. I make sure everyone else is ready to pick up their charges. I then starfire the X. While I'm casting starfire, I change target to the Y. As soon as starfire casts, I moonfire the Y. Then I go furry. This is when tapping the improved enrage can come in handy.
So, my party members, because they are wonderful people, have control over their CC mobs. The X and Y are by me. Depending on whom gets to me first, I lacerate them at LEAST once. I then switch targets to the second mob and lacerate it, too. While I'm doing this, I'm looking around at where I am and where my CC'd mobs are. I back away from the CC to a place where I can swipe without breaking anything. By this time, I'm back on the Y who is the main target. I've tossed a few more lacerates and mangle's on it. With 1 (or 2) lacerates on the X, swipe should keep it on me and off the healer. As soon as (or slightly before) Y dies, I've switched to X and I've started to up my threat on it, the same way I've done on anything else. Then feral charge #3, etc.
Occasionally, you'll have multiple-multiple mobs to tank, such as the large pulls in SH. Provided I don't have a rogue to worry about (or even if I do), I use hurricane. This gets everyone pissed off at me IMMEDIATELY. If I have a rogue sap, I try to position the sap to the edge of the group, so I can position my hurricane such that it WON'T hit the rogue sap but will hit everything else. (Depending on how close you are to said mobs, barkskin helps with this maneuver.)
I tell people to wait on DPS for a minute while I sink aggro on 3 mobs. I do this in roughly reverse order. The second or third (whomever) I lacerate, then the second or third, whichever I didn't get first, I lacerate. Then I switch to the main target and go to town. This shouldn't be an issue with rage, because I should be getting hit by three mobs. At the SAME TIME as I'm doing the above, I'm backing away from any CC and swiping, otherwise the healer is going to be getting a visit soon. Other than initial sinking of aggro on the second and third mob, it isn't much different than two-mob tanking.
If I have to tank 4 mobs, that one... is a bit tougher. Namely because swipe only hits 3 mobs. However, lacerate the main target that everyone is hitting 3 times, then toss a lacerate or two on everything else. I try to go -- main target-maintarget- offtarget1-offtarget2-offtarget3--main target a few times to maintain -- off1-off2-off3-main if it's still alive.
If you discover that your healer is pulling too much initial aggro on those big pulls because they have to heal your non-dodging-sorry-ass, rejuvinate and refresh yourself immediately before starting your pull. This should 1: lessen initial healing aggro since they don't have to heal you massively at the beginning 2: sink more aggro on you since you're healing and fighting! Look at you, you can multi-task! and 3: cause the shaman in the group to complain that they never get to heal because of earth-shield, rejuvination and refresh .. by the time all three are out, everything is dead. It's great fun!
For mobs that are being CC'd. Always make sure your group knows if they're having trouble, they CAN TELL YOU! And they should. You're a BIG FREAKING BEAR! If you can't handle one more mob hitting on you, then you suck. They're a clothy or a leathery or a something else that isn't a BIG FREAKING BEAR! Go ahead and feral charge their target -- don't worry, your main target will follow you. Unless it's a 'I can't CC this anymore for some reason -- ie: warlock succubus is down' do NOT mangle or lacerate this target if you can avoid it. Otherwise the ticking damage will not allow it to be CC'd again. This is mainly an issue with hunter's traps being resisted or accidentally used on something else. You just need to keep it off the hunter long enough for them to lay another trap.
(sometimes the fastest way to get to a loose running around crazy mob is to BACK UP, so you can charge it. Benefit #1 you aren't chasing it like a loon with it always just out of reach as the person it's hitting runs away from you because they're a frantic dummy (RUN TO THE TANK! PLEASE!), #2 if you charge it, it stops running around due to the effect of feral charge, #3 uh... hi? But seriously, if it's too close or you're chasing it, either back up or stay still so it gets into range to charge at it.)
Unless I've still got two (or three) loose mobs to control, I tend to just ignore the no-DoTing rule and add it to the things that I'm currently tanking. You should be on ventrilo with your group or some other way of talking to them, so you can tell them that the new CC-now-tanked mob is next on the list before any other order you may have previously been doing.
And that's it. It's fun. :)
By the way, hunter trap targets you may have to do more than feral charge and lacerate. You may need to *gasp* taunt those, mainly due to the way that hunter's have to trap. The other CC types don't do any damage to their target (unless they're a warlock, then they may be searing pain'ing their target to keep it off of their succubus), so you can pull aggro easily. A hunter has to shoot it a few times (or more!) to get it into their trap. So you're working uphill on those fellows.
As for gear ... I'm less than 40 thick clefthoof leather from my chestpiece. I'm halfway along the quest lines that BBB lists in SMV. I have my stylin' hat. I have my deep necklace. I have one good defense ring and one mixed-stat ring (Ogre Slayer's Band). I'm at uncrittable (425 defense), I have, when fully buffed, between 14-15k life (depending on what constitutes fully buffed!), I have 17k armor, I'm at 20 or 22% dodge. I'm feeling furry and frisky!
Which, by the way, ever notice when you're out in the world and you're trying to play as your bear instead of catform for killing stuff, your rage generation is sucktacular? It's because you dodge too much in the world and they don't hit hard enough when they do land a punch. Isn't that funny? I find it amusing. You spend all this time going -- need more dodge, need more dodge! and then later on you go, 'Damnit! I'm dodging too much!'.
Lately, I've been afflicted with druidism. It's a nasty smelly disease that sometimes turns me into a cat, bear, bird or some odd sea mammal that I think is supposed to be a sea cow.
What? You've never read The White Seal by Rudyard Kipling? Either read the short story (which is good) or look up sea cow in a dictionary.
Anyway...
With my variety of disease, I sometimes become afflicted for short periods of time, during which I'll instance or farm or just have fun. This time, I've become afflicted with the desire to tank. Kathe, my druid, has been a tank since the early 60's. Before that, she was some resto/balance hybrid I think for solo-leveling. Don't ask me, I'm weird.
Without using any of Big Bear Butt's Druid Tank List gear (at least, not knowingly!) I was tanking Shadow Labs, Steamvaults, Shattered Halls. And doing it well. I wasn't uncrittable (defense in the mid 300's). I had somewhat lowish hit points (for a dire bear, that's in the neighborhood of 11k) and somewhat lowish armor points (13k). I had a good healer and good party members, which as in all things, can make up for my lack in gear.
But K, I hear someone ask in the background, you already have a tank, a warrior. Why a second tank?
Because it's different. Because druid is fun. Because I want to. Question answered.
It's true, I do have a warrior. She's all in blues. She's uncrittable. Not sure about uncrushable. She has good armor for a non-raiding-heroicing-Karaing-warrior, she has good hit points as well given the same caveat. But aggro management is so different.
With a warrior, it's all about the devastate and revenge and shield bash and stance-dancing and intervene and intercept and this shout and that shout. Which is hugely enjoyable, don't get me wrong. But so very very different from bear tanking.
With a bear, it's all about the lacerate. Oh, there are a few other things too, but lacerate lacerate lacerate... and omen of clarity. <3 Omen of Clarity. Oh, what's that? 100% reduction in rage cost? MUAHAHAHAHA! Warlocks need a skill like that. Instant cast shadow-bolt with 100% mana reduction and 100% increased damage. That's not asking much, is it?
(By the way, <3 is a sideways heart. Short for love.)
I play a game with my druid tank. If I lose aggro or don't have aggro on something, I don't taunt it. I know, I should. But I see how many lacerates it takes to pull it off of something (with the caveat that I'm in the neighborhood of their threat. If I was tanking against my own warlock, I wouldn't be trying the lacerate-game. I'm assuming an 'on par with me' group.). My average is 2 lacerates and I have aggro back. Without taunt. It's much fun. Of course, you do need to have a decent healer for this lacerate-game, because depending on what is hitting said poor-punching bag, they may not last two lacerates. But usually they do regardless of healing, otherwise they probably don't have any business being in a regular instance. (Mind you, I am not talking heroics).
So... the basics. I'm 0/47/14. The 14 in restoration include the 5 points in furor, 5 points in naturalist, 3 points in intensity and 1 point in the above-mentioned omen of clarity.
With intensity, I have the ability to instantly generate 10 rage with enrage. So, if for some reason I'm in bear form and I don't want to switch out and in again (because I have the nifty ability to generate 10 rage instantly when I transform into bear), I tap enrage and boom, instant 10 rage. Sure I take a hit in armor when I do that, but when it's needed, it's there. With omen of clarity, I build threat faster because I don't need as much rage to lacerate the hell out of something.
(It's also useful in cat form for those times I'm killing something solo. You pounce to stun, mangle to increase your damage from the cat-backstab ability, and then hopefully at some point in time, Omen's popped, which means you can usually backstab immediately, before the stun effect of the pounce wears off.)
The other 47 are in, naturally, feral combat. Obviously, anything that pertains only to cat-form, I have 0 points in. I'm not a DPS-feral. I'm a tank-feral. I won't go down the list of what points I put where, since those are probably pretty self-explanatory.
So, the average fight starts. If I have adequate crowd control and I have only one mob to worry about at a time, I charge. Charge has the bonus of getting me there faster and stunning the mob in place for a few seconds. So even if I have DPS that opens up before I have a chance to hit it, the mob isn't going to be running all over the place just yet. (Caveat is that it's in safe range TO charge, if it's too near other mobs, I don't charge, I faerie fire, back up, THEN charge.)
Since the mob is hitting me (as I'm right there), and I'm hitting it (because I'm there too!), I almost immediately have enough rage to lacerate twice. Then I usually mangle. Everytime the cooldown for mangle is up, I mangle. I lacerate until I have stacked 5 lacerates on the mob. If the CC isn't up by me, I then add swipe and maul into the mix. Swipe, though not as much threat/damage as maul, has the benefit of being instant. I lacerate when it's up. I mangle when it's up. Even though I have 5 lacerates stacked on the mob, I continue to lacerate. It doesn't continue to stack, but it does continue to generate threat.
Usually BEFORE the first mob is dead, I turn, find the next mob I'm killing, and feral charge it. Chances are, unless the first mob is a healer, it will be dead shortly. (I do this when the first mob is about 5% alive). If it's a healer, I stay on it to make sure.
The benefit of charging the 2nd mob in the line before the first is dead is that my aggro-whoring DPS group members have to finish killing the first mob BEFORE they can switch to the second mob. This gives me adequate time to be able to land a few lacerates and at least one mangle before they start in on this mob. This allows me to hold aggro better. This strategy works with my warrior too (sans lacerate and mangle, she has to do things with a weapon and shield, not just teeth and claws). I don't worry about losing aggro on mob #1 in the last few pathetic moments of it's life. If my DPS is adequate, (by that, I mean group DPS, not MINE in particular), it will die before it 1: switches off of me and onto someone else or 2: before it reaches said someone else.
(On the flip side, I do this with DPS as well. If I'm DPSing, in the last few (10 and lower) percentage points of it's life, I tend to up my DPS as much as I can. If I pull aggro off of the tank, no big deal. It's dead before it hits me anyway.)
So, feral charge #2 and lacerate-lacerate. I should have more than enough rage that this is immediately doable. The feral charge locks it in place so it can't go after whomever CC'd it, and since no one else was hitting it (or should have been hitting it), I gain immediate aggro control.
#3, #4, etc. on down the line!
Now, there will be times when I have to multi-tank targets. No problem. A little dicier, but that just adds to the fun!
So, I have X and Y. (I picked Y because Y is easier to type than Skull.). X is second, Y is my skull so it dies first.
I'm in caster form. I make sure everyone else is ready to pick up their charges. I then starfire the X. While I'm casting starfire, I change target to the Y. As soon as starfire casts, I moonfire the Y. Then I go furry. This is when tapping the improved enrage can come in handy.
So, my party members, because they are wonderful people, have control over their CC mobs. The X and Y are by me. Depending on whom gets to me first, I lacerate them at LEAST once. I then switch targets to the second mob and lacerate it, too. While I'm doing this, I'm looking around at where I am and where my CC'd mobs are. I back away from the CC to a place where I can swipe without breaking anything. By this time, I'm back on the Y who is the main target. I've tossed a few more lacerates and mangle's on it. With 1 (or 2) lacerates on the X, swipe should keep it on me and off the healer. As soon as (or slightly before) Y dies, I've switched to X and I've started to up my threat on it, the same way I've done on anything else. Then feral charge #3, etc.
Occasionally, you'll have multiple-multiple mobs to tank, such as the large pulls in SH. Provided I don't have a rogue to worry about (or even if I do), I use hurricane. This gets everyone pissed off at me IMMEDIATELY. If I have a rogue sap, I try to position the sap to the edge of the group, so I can position my hurricane such that it WON'T hit the rogue sap but will hit everything else. (Depending on how close you are to said mobs, barkskin helps with this maneuver.)
I tell people to wait on DPS for a minute while I sink aggro on 3 mobs. I do this in roughly reverse order. The second or third (whomever) I lacerate, then the second or third, whichever I didn't get first, I lacerate. Then I switch to the main target and go to town. This shouldn't be an issue with rage, because I should be getting hit by three mobs. At the SAME TIME as I'm doing the above, I'm backing away from any CC and swiping, otherwise the healer is going to be getting a visit soon. Other than initial sinking of aggro on the second and third mob, it isn't much different than two-mob tanking.
If I have to tank 4 mobs, that one... is a bit tougher. Namely because swipe only hits 3 mobs. However, lacerate the main target that everyone is hitting 3 times, then toss a lacerate or two on everything else. I try to go -- main target-maintarget- offtarget1-offtarget2-offtarget3--main target a few times to maintain -- off1-off2-off3-main if it's still alive.
If you discover that your healer is pulling too much initial aggro on those big pulls because they have to heal your non-dodging-sorry-ass, rejuvinate and refresh yourself immediately before starting your pull. This should 1: lessen initial healing aggro since they don't have to heal you massively at the beginning 2: sink more aggro on you since you're healing and fighting! Look at you, you can multi-task! and 3: cause the shaman in the group to complain that they never get to heal because of earth-shield, rejuvination and refresh .. by the time all three are out, everything is dead. It's great fun!
For mobs that are being CC'd. Always make sure your group knows if they're having trouble, they CAN TELL YOU! And they should. You're a BIG FREAKING BEAR! If you can't handle one more mob hitting on you, then you suck. They're a clothy or a leathery or a something else that isn't a BIG FREAKING BEAR! Go ahead and feral charge their target -- don't worry, your main target will follow you. Unless it's a 'I can't CC this anymore for some reason -- ie: warlock succubus is down' do NOT mangle or lacerate this target if you can avoid it. Otherwise the ticking damage will not allow it to be CC'd again. This is mainly an issue with hunter's traps being resisted or accidentally used on something else. You just need to keep it off the hunter long enough for them to lay another trap.
(sometimes the fastest way to get to a loose running around crazy mob is to BACK UP, so you can charge it. Benefit #1 you aren't chasing it like a loon with it always just out of reach as the person it's hitting runs away from you because they're a frantic dummy (RUN TO THE TANK! PLEASE!), #2 if you charge it, it stops running around due to the effect of feral charge, #3 uh... hi? But seriously, if it's too close or you're chasing it, either back up or stay still so it gets into range to charge at it.)
Unless I've still got two (or three) loose mobs to control, I tend to just ignore the no-DoTing rule and add it to the things that I'm currently tanking. You should be on ventrilo with your group or some other way of talking to them, so you can tell them that the new CC-now-tanked mob is next on the list before any other order you may have previously been doing.
And that's it. It's fun. :)
By the way, hunter trap targets you may have to do more than feral charge and lacerate. You may need to *gasp* taunt those, mainly due to the way that hunter's have to trap. The other CC types don't do any damage to their target (unless they're a warlock, then they may be searing pain'ing their target to keep it off of their succubus), so you can pull aggro easily. A hunter has to shoot it a few times (or more!) to get it into their trap. So you're working uphill on those fellows.
As for gear ... I'm less than 40 thick clefthoof leather from my chestpiece. I'm halfway along the quest lines that BBB lists in SMV. I have my stylin' hat. I have my deep necklace. I have one good defense ring and one mixed-stat ring (Ogre Slayer's Band). I'm at uncrittable (425 defense), I have, when fully buffed, between 14-15k life (depending on what constitutes fully buffed!), I have 17k armor, I'm at 20 or 22% dodge. I'm feeling furry and frisky!
Which, by the way, ever notice when you're out in the world and you're trying to play as your bear instead of catform for killing stuff, your rage generation is sucktacular? It's because you dodge too much in the world and they don't hit hard enough when they do land a punch. Isn't that funny? I find it amusing. You spend all this time going -- need more dodge, need more dodge! and then later on you go, 'Damnit! I'm dodging too much!'.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Talent Builds And You!
If you haven't yet, and you're a warlock, you should pay some attention to the various builds espoused by WoWWiki.
For the longest time, I paid no attention to the builds there, instead making up my own. I do this for several reasons, 1: I'm an 'original' gamer. I don't follow guides, I try to not look up quest information online. I want to play the game, not follow someone elses footsteps and 2: none of the talent builds espoused by anyone included my own personal build, so they obviously are insane and not worth paying attention to!
So saying, this is (roughly), my current build. There may be a point in affliction swapped around somewhere for another, but that's roughly the way it is (it's maintenance day, so I can't access my build exactly because I can't get on the game, and the Armory is down... again.). For the longest time before that, I was actually classified as HYBRID on Armory and I was a mix of affliction with a lot in demonology for improved health and intellect, improved healthstone and improved imp, and just enough in destruction to get improved shadowbolt and bane. Then I discovered that the joy of Dark Pact and the discovery of my Shadowburn and I respecced. I lost my beautiful healthstone, but clung desperately onto my fel armor.
Owaru constantly tells me that I should go full affliction for Unstable Affliction and he doesn't know how I put out the DPS that I do with the ... unusual ... build that I have.
So saying, I do look at the various talent suggestions out there. And I don't think people who follow recommended builds are robots or nonimaginative. They're recommended for a reason. They work really really really well for what you want to do and depending on what you want to do, you can have some really interesting combinations. For instance, on WoWWiki, there are 16 builds that they have listed. 5 Affliction, 5 Demonology and 6 Destruction, with a Demonic Sacrifice build talked about at the very end.
I fit none of those builds. And I haven't ever found another warlock that has my build.
Does this make me a unique wonderful individual who has found a viable new build? Who knows. Maybe. Maybe not. It probably just makes me a megalomaniac to believe that I alone have discovered something that no one else ever has. I'm sure one or two really intelligent and amazing warlocks also have my general build, but they are few and far between, I'm sure.
Last night I was partying with a warlock that was the 40/0/21 spec. Now, there are multiple ways of getting 40 points in Affliction, so I don't know exactly what his layout was, and when I decided to try to get ruin and pay some more attention to the lovely spells in Destruction, I got a layout that was slightly different than the layout that WoWWiki espouses. (For instance, grim reach bleh, improved curse of agony, yeh!)
My 40/0/21 build, WoWWiki's 40/0/21 build.
So, do I go with what I figured out? Or do I go with what they recommend? Should I change myself around at all?
Here's what I figure. The warlock I spoke to last night was right. The way I'm set up right now, my crit bonuses (from gear and gems) are worthless on DoT's, but only useful really on Shadowbolt. And in 5-mans and some other instances where I'm not DoTting as much and using more Shadowbolt, improved crit from Ruin will be really nice. Not to mention that even as I'm set up now, 35-38% of my overall damage is from Shadowbolt. Why shouldn't I increase my chance to crit with it?
That got me to thinking and I took a good long look at the talent calculators. A problem I have (a big problem!) is aggro generation. My current spec only has improved drain life which gives me 10% less threat from my affliction spells, but nothing for my shadowbolt and immolate spells. I also don't have much in suppression, which really pisses you off when your amplify curse/curse of doom on the Curator is resisted. According to somewhere that I just read this morning, only 2 points in Suppression is needed to reduce resistance from mobs "my level" by 99%. Now, I'm not sure if raid bosses count as "my level", but we'll see. I do really miss fel concentration, but as Owaru pointed out before, I shouldn't be doing too much drain tanking in raids and heroics. If I am, things are horribly horribly wrong.
The new 40/0/21 spec that I generated (for myself, not the one wowwiki handed me) I think will help with my threat generation and up my overall damage from my shadowbolts (which, again, 35-38% of my overall damage) especially as a lot of gear and gems out there are +spell damage/+spell crit rating. I know crit isn't as important for 'locks as it is for some other classes, but why not make the most out of the gear and gems that give me +crit and take a nifty ability called Devastation (what warlock wouldn't like to have an ability called devastation? How cool is that name, anyway? :) that boosts my crit by my shadowbolt by 5%?
Aaaand I suppose I'll also try out Malediction. I tend to use curse of agony, but if I'm doing lots of other DoT's and 35% of my damage is from shadowbolts, I probably should use curse of shadow on occasion to up my shadow damage. I'll save curse of agony for little things that die "fast" and farming.
Whatever your cup of tea is, don't feel intimidated into doing what the talent recommendations are. If you want to make up your own (like I did!), DO IT. It's a game. It's YOUR game. Play it the way you want to play it. However ... don't do what I did and dig your heels in, put your head down, and ignore anything that doesn't fit in with what you want. Now... I'm not saying DO IT, but consider it. It may open your eyes to something you weren't considering before simply because ... well, you've never done it that way.
The next time you see me, I may be respecced. How daunting is that?
And worse of all? I'll lose my demonic aegis. Bye bye improved fel armor by 30%. Poor Bremm isn't going to get anymore insane healing numbers off of me anymore. Just normal bigassBremm heals.
For the longest time, I paid no attention to the builds there, instead making up my own. I do this for several reasons, 1: I'm an 'original' gamer. I don't follow guides, I try to not look up quest information online. I want to play the game, not follow someone elses footsteps and 2: none of the talent builds espoused by anyone included my own personal build, so they obviously are insane and not worth paying attention to!
So saying, this is (roughly), my current build. There may be a point in affliction swapped around somewhere for another, but that's roughly the way it is (it's maintenance day, so I can't access my build exactly because I can't get on the game, and the Armory is down... again.). For the longest time before that, I was actually classified as HYBRID on Armory and I was a mix of affliction with a lot in demonology for improved health and intellect, improved healthstone and improved imp, and just enough in destruction to get improved shadowbolt and bane. Then I discovered that the joy of Dark Pact and the discovery of my Shadowburn and I respecced. I lost my beautiful healthstone, but clung desperately onto my fel armor.
Owaru constantly tells me that I should go full affliction for Unstable Affliction and he doesn't know how I put out the DPS that I do with the ... unusual ... build that I have.
So saying, I do look at the various talent suggestions out there. And I don't think people who follow recommended builds are robots or nonimaginative. They're recommended for a reason. They work really really really well for what you want to do and depending on what you want to do, you can have some really interesting combinations. For instance, on WoWWiki, there are 16 builds that they have listed. 5 Affliction, 5 Demonology and 6 Destruction, with a Demonic Sacrifice build talked about at the very end.
I fit none of those builds. And I haven't ever found another warlock that has my build.
Does this make me a unique wonderful individual who has found a viable new build? Who knows. Maybe. Maybe not. It probably just makes me a megalomaniac to believe that I alone have discovered something that no one else ever has. I'm sure one or two really intelligent and amazing warlocks also have my general build, but they are few and far between, I'm sure.
Last night I was partying with a warlock that was the 40/0/21 spec. Now, there are multiple ways of getting 40 points in Affliction, so I don't know exactly what his layout was, and when I decided to try to get ruin and pay some more attention to the lovely spells in Destruction, I got a layout that was slightly different than the layout that WoWWiki espouses. (For instance, grim reach bleh, improved curse of agony, yeh!)
My 40/0/21 build, WoWWiki's 40/0/21 build.
So, do I go with what I figured out? Or do I go with what they recommend? Should I change myself around at all?
Here's what I figure. The warlock I spoke to last night was right. The way I'm set up right now, my crit bonuses (from gear and gems) are worthless on DoT's, but only useful really on Shadowbolt. And in 5-mans and some other instances where I'm not DoTting as much and using more Shadowbolt, improved crit from Ruin will be really nice. Not to mention that even as I'm set up now, 35-38% of my overall damage is from Shadowbolt. Why shouldn't I increase my chance to crit with it?
That got me to thinking and I took a good long look at the talent calculators. A problem I have (a big problem!) is aggro generation. My current spec only has improved drain life which gives me 10% less threat from my affliction spells, but nothing for my shadowbolt and immolate spells. I also don't have much in suppression, which really pisses you off when your amplify curse/curse of doom on the Curator is resisted. According to somewhere that I just read this morning, only 2 points in Suppression is needed to reduce resistance from mobs "my level" by 99%. Now, I'm not sure if raid bosses count as "my level", but we'll see. I do really miss fel concentration, but as Owaru pointed out before, I shouldn't be doing too much drain tanking in raids and heroics. If I am, things are horribly horribly wrong.
The new 40/0/21 spec that I generated (for myself, not the one wowwiki handed me) I think will help with my threat generation and up my overall damage from my shadowbolts (which, again, 35-38% of my overall damage) especially as a lot of gear and gems out there are +spell damage/+spell crit rating. I know crit isn't as important for 'locks as it is for some other classes, but why not make the most out of the gear and gems that give me +crit and take a nifty ability called Devastation (what warlock wouldn't like to have an ability called devastation? How cool is that name, anyway? :) that boosts my crit by my shadowbolt by 5%?
Aaaand I suppose I'll also try out Malediction. I tend to use curse of agony, but if I'm doing lots of other DoT's and 35% of my damage is from shadowbolts, I probably should use curse of shadow on occasion to up my shadow damage. I'll save curse of agony for little things that die "fast" and farming.
Whatever your cup of tea is, don't feel intimidated into doing what the talent recommendations are. If you want to make up your own (like I did!), DO IT. It's a game. It's YOUR game. Play it the way you want to play it. However ... don't do what I did and dig your heels in, put your head down, and ignore anything that doesn't fit in with what you want. Now... I'm not saying DO IT, but consider it. It may open your eyes to something you weren't considering before simply because ... well, you've never done it that way.
The next time you see me, I may be respecced. How daunting is that?
And worse of all? I'll lose my demonic aegis. Bye bye improved fel armor by 30%. Poor Bremm isn't going to get anymore insane healing numbers off of me anymore. Just normal bigassBremm heals.
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