I was wandering around the blue post roundup on wow.com, and came across Running out of mana was never fun. Ghostcrawler's remarks were interesting, but what I'd really like to talk about is mana regen in healing and dpsing.
Now, when I got to 80 on my hunter, I was marks. Marks was rather horribly mana-inefficient at the time. As in sting, chimera, arcane, aimed, hey look there went a quarter of my mana pool. It was a challenge to do as much damage as possible given this limitation. I figured out which bosses in Naxx had mana pools and used Viper Sting + Chimera shot on them to get mana back. I spent a lot of time at the test dummies figuring out how to get the most mana back in the minimum amount of time with Aspect of the Viper while in combat. It was a fun challenge, but not an overwhelming one. If I failed at it, well, my dps went down. That was it.
As a healer, if I run oom, people die. If I have no mana, I am a useless priest. This means the mana game is no longer a game, and I do everything possible to make sure I don't need to worry about mana. Now, I have Solace, which gives me mana regen every time I cast a helpful spell, so I don't worry much. But I remember the not-fun days, where I was always worrying about mana, in addition to worrying about healing, where I was standing, and if I was doing okay or not. Healing's a higher-stress job, so having more worries is understandable and as long as the fun to worry ratio is good, I'm not going to stop healing.
But is there any way to make the mana game as a healer like the mana game as a hunter? From what I've seen, holy pallies do have that. They basically manage their own regen dynamically, and that's what I want as a priest. Hymn of Hope and Shadowfiend are all well and good, but I want something more. Don't know what, exactly, but I'll continue to hope that Cataclysm has it. Until then, you can have my Solace of the Defeated when you pry it from my cold dead hands.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
So you want a cool rep title....
what are your options? How hard are they to get? And which ones are in jeopardy with the coming of Cat?
Never fear, I'm here to answer all those questions.
First, Ambassador. Get exalted with all 5 home cities. This has gotten easier since the Tournament, but there's still a bit of leg work to do. If you're allergic to jousting, your options are questing and cloth turn-ins. There's probably going to be at least one faction (Gnomer for Alliance, and I think Thunder Bluff for Horde) where you have to do cloth because the quests aren't enough. Farm up some runecloth, you're going to need it. This one isn't hard, just time-consuming. On the plus side, you can get a ton of mounts, giving you a leg up on Mountain of Mounts.
Second, Bloodsail Admiral. You've got to get friendly with the Bloodsail and hated with Booty Bay. You get a nifty hat and a pet. This one's just grindy. Possibility of being affected by Cat: medium.
Third, Guardian of Cenarius. Garetia's currently working on this. You need to get Exalted with both the Cenarion Circle and the Cenarion Expedition. For Circle rep, there are some quests, as well as killing Twilight Cultists in silithus, doing world pvp (also in Silithus) and running both AQs. For Expedition, run Underbog and Slave Pens or turn in Unidentified Plant parts till honored, then quest and run Steamvaults. You can also grind ears in Borean Tundra and turn them into to Dehta. If you can't solo Steamvaults, or don't have someone to duo it with, this is really not fun. Steamvaults is 3k rep per run more or less, so beg, borrow, or steal someone to come with you if you need to.
You have some nice possibilities with this grind, including mounts out of the AQs and blues/greens from the instances. Possibility of being affected by Cat: fairly high.
Fourth, of the Ashen Verdict. Get exalted with the Ashen Verdict in ICC. Run ICC and/or do rep runs of the trash. You can get recipes, a really nice ring, and um, other stuff? Possibility of being affected by Cat: low insofar as Cat's unlikely to change the grind, but it's going to be much harder to find people to go with you.
Fifth, of the Shattered Sun. You must be exalted with the Shattered Sun offense and do a quest and it'll cost you. This one involves lots and lots of dailies on Quel'Danas. Possibility of being affected by Cat: low
Sixth, Argent Champion. Get exalted with the Argent Dawn and the Argent Crusade. Run Strat (or Scholo, but Strat has a mount drop) with the Argent Dawn trinket and/or kill old world undead for Dawn, and wear a tabard/quest/do dailies for the Crusade. My priest can solo Strat in disc (it's slow but completely doable) so this is likely the most accessible of the titles involving old world rep. Possibility of being affected by Cat: medium. I'd get exalted with Dawn before Cat, just in case though.
Seventh, the Diplomat. Go from neutral to exalted with Timbermaw Hold, Sporeggar and the Kurenai / Mag'har. Now this one is a big grind. You can combine some of the Sporeggar rep grind with the Cenarion Expedition one (Underbog is full of Sanguine Hibiscus and you can get them from bog lords in Steamvaults too if you're an herbalist) Sporeggar has a pet and the Kurenai/ Mag'har have awesome land mounts. This is a really grindy one, and be aware that you want to get to Revered with Timbermaw through killing alone, saving your rep turn-ins for Revered to Exalted. Timbermaw's a great way to farm runecloth, so you can get some work done on Ambassador while you're at it. Possibility of being affected by Cat: fairly high, so get Timbermaw done now. Again, you'll be doing at least one of these grinds for mountain of mounts, so might as well go for the title.
Eighth, the Exalted. Raise 40 reputations to Exalted. So, if you've done all the ones above, you're at...15 exalted reputations. Expect to spend a long time working on this one. Possibility of being affected by Cat: Almost guaranteed. Get working on those old world rep grinds now.
Ninth, and last, the Insane. So called because you have to be insane to have gotten it. Earn Exalted status with Booty Bay, Everlook, Gadgetzan, Ratchet, Darkmoon Faire, Ravenholdt, Shen'dralar, and Honored with Bloodsail Buccaneers.
Massively grindy, expensive, and if you're doing this, I'm impressed. Worried for your sanity, but impressed. Possibility of being affected by Cat: pretty much guaranteed, given that these are all old world rep grinds.
Never fear, I'm here to answer all those questions.
First, Ambassador. Get exalted with all 5 home cities. This has gotten easier since the Tournament, but there's still a bit of leg work to do. If you're allergic to jousting, your options are questing and cloth turn-ins. There's probably going to be at least one faction (Gnomer for Alliance, and I think Thunder Bluff for Horde) where you have to do cloth because the quests aren't enough. Farm up some runecloth, you're going to need it. This one isn't hard, just time-consuming. On the plus side, you can get a ton of mounts, giving you a leg up on Mountain of Mounts.
Second, Bloodsail Admiral. You've got to get friendly with the Bloodsail and hated with Booty Bay. You get a nifty hat and a pet. This one's just grindy. Possibility of being affected by Cat: medium.
Third, Guardian of Cenarius. Garetia's currently working on this. You need to get Exalted with both the Cenarion Circle and the Cenarion Expedition. For Circle rep, there are some quests, as well as killing Twilight Cultists in silithus, doing world pvp (also in Silithus) and running both AQs. For Expedition, run Underbog and Slave Pens or turn in Unidentified Plant parts till honored, then quest and run Steamvaults. You can also grind ears in Borean Tundra and turn them into to Dehta. If you can't solo Steamvaults, or don't have someone to duo it with, this is really not fun. Steamvaults is 3k rep per run more or less, so beg, borrow, or steal someone to come with you if you need to.
You have some nice possibilities with this grind, including mounts out of the AQs and blues/greens from the instances. Possibility of being affected by Cat: fairly high.
Fourth, of the Ashen Verdict. Get exalted with the Ashen Verdict in ICC. Run ICC and/or do rep runs of the trash. You can get recipes, a really nice ring, and um, other stuff? Possibility of being affected by Cat: low insofar as Cat's unlikely to change the grind, but it's going to be much harder to find people to go with you.
Fifth, of the Shattered Sun. You must be exalted with the Shattered Sun offense and do a quest and it'll cost you. This one involves lots and lots of dailies on Quel'Danas. Possibility of being affected by Cat: low
Sixth, Argent Champion. Get exalted with the Argent Dawn and the Argent Crusade. Run Strat (or Scholo, but Strat has a mount drop) with the Argent Dawn trinket and/or kill old world undead for Dawn, and wear a tabard/quest/do dailies for the Crusade. My priest can solo Strat in disc (it's slow but completely doable) so this is likely the most accessible of the titles involving old world rep. Possibility of being affected by Cat: medium. I'd get exalted with Dawn before Cat, just in case though.
Seventh, the Diplomat. Go from neutral to exalted with Timbermaw Hold, Sporeggar and the Kurenai / Mag'har. Now this one is a big grind. You can combine some of the Sporeggar rep grind with the Cenarion Expedition one (Underbog is full of Sanguine Hibiscus and you can get them from bog lords in Steamvaults too if you're an herbalist) Sporeggar has a pet and the Kurenai/ Mag'har have awesome land mounts. This is a really grindy one, and be aware that you want to get to Revered with Timbermaw through killing alone, saving your rep turn-ins for Revered to Exalted. Timbermaw's a great way to farm runecloth, so you can get some work done on Ambassador while you're at it. Possibility of being affected by Cat: fairly high, so get Timbermaw done now. Again, you'll be doing at least one of these grinds for mountain of mounts, so might as well go for the title.
Eighth, the Exalted. Raise 40 reputations to Exalted. So, if you've done all the ones above, you're at...15 exalted reputations. Expect to spend a long time working on this one. Possibility of being affected by Cat: Almost guaranteed. Get working on those old world rep grinds now.
Ninth, and last, the Insane. So called because you have to be insane to have gotten it. Earn Exalted status with Booty Bay, Everlook, Gadgetzan, Ratchet, Darkmoon Faire, Ravenholdt, Shen'dralar, and Honored with Bloodsail Buccaneers.
Massively grindy, expensive, and if you're doing this, I'm impressed. Worried for your sanity, but impressed. Possibility of being affected by Cat: pretty much guaranteed, given that these are all old world rep grinds.
Blog Azeroth topic: How will Cataclysm change your game?
I joined Blog Azeroth. They have this nifty shared topic thing, and one of the currentish topics is "How will Cataclysm change your game?" And there's the original suggestor's response.
Well, Cat has already changed my game. From the moment they said "hunters, no more mana for you," I realized I needed to have at least one more 80 so that if hunters get completely boned, or if I hate focus with the burning passion of a thousand stars, I have other options. Now, I'd already gotten an RAF account and was leveling a druid/priest pair, and the Cat changes just offered more incentive. And now, Lyllea (my priest) is my main, Garetia (my hunter) is my lvl 80 alt, and I've got a druid, a pally, and a DK slowly wandering through Outlands, just in case priest healing gets gimped. I don't think it will, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared.
As far as the new stats, I dunno. I think it will make my game slightly more inconvienent, since it's sounding like dps caster gear won't overlap with healy caster gear anymore, and that means two full sets of gear (three if you count pvp). Not so sure I'm thrilled with that.
More than anything, Cataclysm just provides me with more incentive to get things done. I am a procrastinator of the worst sort, so having a deadline helps me get things done.
There are things I'm really looking forward to, like rolling a warlock Alliance-side. I'm not a big fan of humans, and well, gnomes squeak, so warlock's the only class that is horde-only for me. I should probably figure out how to free up a character slot for that.
I'm also looking forward to the zone updates. Goodness knows, I've no desire to level through the same zones over and over again, and yet this is what I've been doing. The dungeon finder helps a bit with this, but let's face it, you have to do something while you wait, and there are only so many games of Peggle I can play.
Well, Cat has already changed my game. From the moment they said "hunters, no more mana for you," I realized I needed to have at least one more 80 so that if hunters get completely boned, or if I hate focus with the burning passion of a thousand stars, I have other options. Now, I'd already gotten an RAF account and was leveling a druid/priest pair, and the Cat changes just offered more incentive. And now, Lyllea (my priest) is my main, Garetia (my hunter) is my lvl 80 alt, and I've got a druid, a pally, and a DK slowly wandering through Outlands, just in case priest healing gets gimped. I don't think it will, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared.
As far as the new stats, I dunno. I think it will make my game slightly more inconvienent, since it's sounding like dps caster gear won't overlap with healy caster gear anymore, and that means two full sets of gear (three if you count pvp). Not so sure I'm thrilled with that.
More than anything, Cataclysm just provides me with more incentive to get things done. I am a procrastinator of the worst sort, so having a deadline helps me get things done.
There are things I'm really looking forward to, like rolling a warlock Alliance-side. I'm not a big fan of humans, and well, gnomes squeak, so warlock's the only class that is horde-only for me. I should probably figure out how to free up a character slot for that.
I'm also looking forward to the zone updates. Goodness knows, I've no desire to level through the same zones over and over again, and yet this is what I've been doing. The dungeon finder helps a bit with this, but let's face it, you have to do something while you wait, and there are only so many games of Peggle I can play.
Bad start, but great finish
It was a good night.
First, I got to dps a Sarth 3D zerg on Garetia. She got 4 achievements at once (the 3 twilight ones and the one for staying out of the fire). That also got her enough emblems to get another piece of tier 9. Yay 2 piece bonus of awesome. I still need to replace her chest and legs and cloak and just about everything else, but at least her gloves and shoulders are good to go.
Then it was time for Old World raiding. Sadly, no one but me and Slack showed up, so I dragged his level 63 arse through Underbog instead. He got some nice drops, including a shammy relic and some awesome pants.
And then, as I was cutting gems for Slack's new pants, a call went out over the raiding alliance channel. They were losing a healer in their alt TOC25/Ony 25/weekly raid, so I went. And I got new pants. Two pairs, one for heals, and one for shadow. I also got enough triumph to get shadow tier, but I got a new wand instead (it was a bigger upgrade for both specs). I'd already broken my tier 9 4 bonus (because tier 10 shadow gloves dropped in a voa run and man those stats are beyond awesome), so I figure I'll try to hang on to the 2 piece bonus instead, or at least until Blizz figures out what they're doing with the tier 10 bonus. I do need to figure out shadowspec gearing beyond "am I hitcapped?" though. Looks like I'll be hitting shadowpriest.com and doing some reading.
All in all, it was a nice end to a week that hadn't started well on the raiding front.
First, I got to dps a Sarth 3D zerg on Garetia. She got 4 achievements at once (the 3 twilight ones and the one for staying out of the fire). That also got her enough emblems to get another piece of tier 9. Yay 2 piece bonus of awesome. I still need to replace her chest and legs and cloak and just about everything else, but at least her gloves and shoulders are good to go.
Then it was time for Old World raiding. Sadly, no one but me and Slack showed up, so I dragged his level 63 arse through Underbog instead. He got some nice drops, including a shammy relic and some awesome pants.
And then, as I was cutting gems for Slack's new pants, a call went out over the raiding alliance channel. They were losing a healer in their alt TOC25/Ony 25/weekly raid, so I went. And I got new pants. Two pairs, one for heals, and one for shadow. I also got enough triumph to get shadow tier, but I got a new wand instead (it was a bigger upgrade for both specs). I'd already broken my tier 9 4 bonus (because tier 10 shadow gloves dropped in a voa run and man those stats are beyond awesome), so I figure I'll try to hang on to the 2 piece bonus instead, or at least until Blizz figures out what they're doing with the tier 10 bonus. I do need to figure out shadowspec gearing beyond "am I hitcapped?" though. Looks like I'll be hitting shadowpriest.com and doing some reading.
All in all, it was a nice end to a week that hadn't started well on the raiding front.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Something I'd like to see in Cataclysm
This was all inspired last night by Matticus tweeting about the celestial horse obviously being a priest mount. It got me to thinking about other classes getting their own mounts and what they might look like. I tried to make sure each class had something unique and cool and something we haven't seen in game before. Ideally you should be able to tell what class is approaching you from quite a long distance away based on their class mount (if that's the mount they're using). Sadly, I didn't quite manage it (stupid horses being so iconic), but I welcome any ideas anyone else has!
Druids-> Well, they already have a travel form and two flight forms, so all they need is an epic ground mount. I'm thinking a recolor of Reins of the Raven Lord would be cool. Green maybe? Or you could get a dryad to ride on or one of the huge tree guys. Or summon something from the Emerald Dream.
Hunters-> So, I have a crazy (but cool) idea. Now we all know the most iconic thing about hunters is their pets. Now imagine getting an item that allowed you to turn one of your stabled pets into a mount. How cool would it be to go riding around on a spirit beast or a corehound? To keep this from being overpoweringly cool, you'd only be able to use the item on one pet at a time and that pet would just be a mount, and could not be used as a normal pet (but would still take up one of those valuable stable slots). But it would allow all those hunters who tamed a really cool pet to show them off, even if they aren't the greatest pet for dpsing.
Mages-> I'm thinking a water elemental for ground mount, and a fire one for flying. Or a large version of the Kirin Tor familiar. Some sort of levitate and a speed spell could also work.
Paladins-> Pegasus. Pegasi? Winged horses. Their ground mounts would stay the same, as I really feel they fit the class well.
Priests-> This one was hard. Obviously they should have wings of pure light (or shadow) for the flying option, but for ground? Mostly when I think of priests and mounts I think of mules, which aren't very epic or cool. Maybe a ball of light (or shadow)?
Rogues-> Something sneaky, like a Fel Reaver! Okay, those are only sneaky in Outlands. Hmm... Well, some sort of shadowstep teleport would be awesome, and fit the flavor of the class, but that wouldn't be a mount. I'd say a big cat because of the prowl bug, but nelves already have cats. Maybe a solid black cat, like a panther and you can stealth while mounted (but you go slower)! A chameleon mount would also be kinda cool. Flying-wise, a glider would be very stealthy, especially if it was painted the colors of the sky.
Shamans-> Earth elemental for ground, air for flying. I was also considering some sort of flying totem, based on the totem art for each race. Both could work. Ghost wolves would also be an option.
Warlocks-> A felhound mount. You know you want one. And for the flying mount, a smaller version of one of those winged demon guys from Hellfire maybe? I can't really come up with a flying demon that seems appropriate. Maybe a winged snake of green fire?
Warriors-> This was the other really hard one. A warrior is such a broad archetype, and most of the obvious mount options have already been done. So what about a chariot? Or a jeep-like contraption, but that doesn't really work for all races. Flying-wise, I think an armored drake would be the way to go.
And I like the mounts DKs have, so I wouldn't change them except to get rid of the screaming sound when you summon the ground mount. I do not like that sound. But, I suppose I should throw them a bone and they could have skeletal drakes.
Druids-> Well, they already have a travel form and two flight forms, so all they need is an epic ground mount. I'm thinking a recolor of Reins of the Raven Lord would be cool. Green maybe? Or you could get a dryad to ride on or one of the huge tree guys. Or summon something from the Emerald Dream.
Hunters-> So, I have a crazy (but cool) idea. Now we all know the most iconic thing about hunters is their pets. Now imagine getting an item that allowed you to turn one of your stabled pets into a mount. How cool would it be to go riding around on a spirit beast or a corehound? To keep this from being overpoweringly cool, you'd only be able to use the item on one pet at a time and that pet would just be a mount, and could not be used as a normal pet (but would still take up one of those valuable stable slots). But it would allow all those hunters who tamed a really cool pet to show them off, even if they aren't the greatest pet for dpsing.
Mages-> I'm thinking a water elemental for ground mount, and a fire one for flying. Or a large version of the Kirin Tor familiar. Some sort of levitate and a speed spell could also work.
Paladins-> Pegasus. Pegasi? Winged horses. Their ground mounts would stay the same, as I really feel they fit the class well.
Priests-> This one was hard. Obviously they should have wings of pure light (or shadow) for the flying option, but for ground? Mostly when I think of priests and mounts I think of mules, which aren't very epic or cool. Maybe a ball of light (or shadow)?
Rogues-> Something sneaky, like a Fel Reaver! Okay, those are only sneaky in Outlands. Hmm... Well, some sort of shadowstep teleport would be awesome, and fit the flavor of the class, but that wouldn't be a mount. I'd say a big cat because of the prowl bug, but nelves already have cats. Maybe a solid black cat, like a panther and you can stealth while mounted (but you go slower)! A chameleon mount would also be kinda cool. Flying-wise, a glider would be very stealthy, especially if it was painted the colors of the sky.
Shamans-> Earth elemental for ground, air for flying. I was also considering some sort of flying totem, based on the totem art for each race. Both could work. Ghost wolves would also be an option.
Warlocks-> A felhound mount. You know you want one. And for the flying mount, a smaller version of one of those winged demon guys from Hellfire maybe? I can't really come up with a flying demon that seems appropriate. Maybe a winged snake of green fire?
Warriors-> This was the other really hard one. A warrior is such a broad archetype, and most of the obvious mount options have already been done. So what about a chariot? Or a jeep-like contraption, but that doesn't really work for all races. Flying-wise, I think an armored drake would be the way to go.
And I like the mounts DKs have, so I wouldn't change them except to get rid of the screaming sound when you summon the ground mount. I do not like that sound. But, I suppose I should throw them a bone and they could have skeletal drakes.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Grr
No, we did not get him down. We're trying again tomorrow, and hopefully I will be less fail. Not only did I die every phase 3, but I managed to die in phase 1 twice. Go me.
So after repeated wipes, I switched over to the druid and found a great place to level weapons skill. It's in Moonglade, and you can see that tunnel in front of my character? Well that tunnel spawns a phantasmal lasher and then an npc kills it. All you need to do is whack it while the npc goes to town and watch your weapon skill soar. Plus, you don't even have to move. My druid might actually have decent weapon skill levels soon, thanks to this.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Druid vs Priest healing
My baby druid went broccoli. And then I healed some dungeons. And then I got a hot tracker (hotcandy in case you were wondering) and healed some more.
Druid healing is different. Not bad, just different. It may have something to do with the fact that I haven't reached the bottom of the resto tree (I figured I should get the balance talents first), but it's kinda panic-inducing, mixed with periods of boredom.
So let's lay out the difference...
As disc I shield the tank, start POM bouncing, and if the dps takes damage I shield and flash heal them. The tank may get a penance or greater heal, but mostly everyone gets flash heals.
As a tree I hot the tank. Then I wait to see if I need to use a Rejuv or a Healing Touch. I hot the dps as needed. My healing touch casting time varies for some reason so that makes my life a bit more interesting. And I run into mana issues (Innervate is the best spell ever) and I'm overhealing like crazy. The mana issues are a gear thing, I know.
Both disc and tree are best if you can think ahead and predict the damage. I'm not so good at this in 5 mans, since it requires me to actually remember fights beyond run out of the ick. If I ran the instances enough, I probably would retain the "ick about to happen, shield/hot!" information, but who wants to run Outlands stuff that much? But tree is kinda brain-hurty in that I have now been trained to DO SOMETHING when a health bar starts dropping. But if there's already a hot there, I don't need to do anything unless the damage is greater than the hot's healing. And that just seems wrong.
Now, this is not a critique of tree healing at all. I kinda like it, other than the panic bit. It gives me time to go get that yellow dot (ooh herb!). Plus I can pull of miracles in tree that I couldn't have in disc at the same level. One tank and one idiot dps trying to tank? It's a problem, but no longer a "oh god we're all going to die" problem. More of a "grr, I liked having a full blue bar and will you stop trying to kill the nice mage along with you!" problem.
But boomkin is more fun. Heehee hurricane and stuff is dead.
Druid healing is different. Not bad, just different. It may have something to do with the fact that I haven't reached the bottom of the resto tree (I figured I should get the balance talents first), but it's kinda panic-inducing, mixed with periods of boredom.
So let's lay out the difference...
As disc I shield the tank, start POM bouncing, and if the dps takes damage I shield and flash heal them. The tank may get a penance or greater heal, but mostly everyone gets flash heals.
As a tree I hot the tank. Then I wait to see if I need to use a Rejuv or a Healing Touch. I hot the dps as needed. My healing touch casting time varies for some reason so that makes my life a bit more interesting. And I run into mana issues (Innervate is the best spell ever) and I'm overhealing like crazy. The mana issues are a gear thing, I know.
Both disc and tree are best if you can think ahead and predict the damage. I'm not so good at this in 5 mans, since it requires me to actually remember fights beyond run out of the ick. If I ran the instances enough, I probably would retain the "ick about to happen, shield/hot!" information, but who wants to run Outlands stuff that much? But tree is kinda brain-hurty in that I have now been trained to DO SOMETHING when a health bar starts dropping. But if there's already a hot there, I don't need to do anything unless the damage is greater than the hot's healing. And that just seems wrong.
Now, this is not a critique of tree healing at all. I kinda like it, other than the panic bit. It gives me time to go get that yellow dot (ooh herb!). Plus I can pull of miracles in tree that I couldn't have in disc at the same level. One tank and one idiot dps trying to tank? It's a problem, but no longer a "oh god we're all going to die" problem. More of a "grr, I liked having a full blue bar and will you stop trying to kill the nice mage along with you!" problem.
But boomkin is more fun. Heehee hurricane and stuff is dead.
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