Straight Out Of Sci-Fi

Another pretty pic from around the World of Warcraft:

Matrix Meets Minority Report?

Fuu and I just hit 75 this weekend and found Dalaran. While the above pic has absolutely nothing to do with Dalaran, I've just been enjoying the views from various platforms we've been teleported to. Dalaran itself is breathtaking; GG Blizz. I love the storefronts and just the general architecture of the area. I'd really like to run a few more instances this week, but in-game attendance has been spotty what with the holidays and all. Hope yours was great, I'm about 5 pounds heavier and probably need to get away from the computer screen, but hey... its still vacation :-D.

Back to the Dragonblight!

Pally Power: Talented Tanking

Since the Paladin Protection Talent tree has received a major reworking, there is not yet a “cookie-cutter” spec. To be honest, I love it! It gives me the freedom to place my talent points into areas that I feel are slacking, and to ignore places that don’t quite need the attention at the moment. Also, it gives me the pleasure of testing it out while I’m leveling without someone scrutinizing my set up.

Sometimes I can’t help myself from messing around with the talent calculator on wowhead just to see what odd spec I can create. Here is what I have found to be a practical leveling spec; I feel that it covers all of my bases:

I Feel Talented

To start off with, Improved Devotion Aura has received a rather nice boost since this last patch. Not only does it give your armor a helping hand, but it also increases how much we are healed. This seems more useful than having Retribution Aura up because I feel that the mitigated damage and the +healing outweigh the benefits of keeping Ret Aura up. Ret Aura would then be used on occasion when rounding up a ton of lowbie mobs and it’s rather enjoyable to watch them beat themselves to death. /evilgrin

Reckoning is one of those talents that could be invested in or not. My feeling on the whole thing is if I’m generating an extra swing, it will generate more threat over boss fights or longer fights in general. Now with trash mobs, you might not ever see these talents put into play. For me, I’m going to invest 3 points in Hammer of Justice because I will find that more useful while I’m leveling. This will most likely change after I’m geared and ready to go into raids.

Blessing of Sanctuary is something that you do not want to pass up. This blessing is what I will be taking over Blessing of Kings. It reduces damage from all sources by 3% and every time you mitigate damage, you regenerate mana. This will help when we are getting hit a lot but not hurt. This blessing also gives you the ability to get the best out of this tree such as Holy Shield, Avenger’s Shield (Tankidan’s one of few pulling abilities), and Shield of the Templar.

I have invested 5 talents in Seals of the Pure because I use Seal of Vengeance every time I hit something. Why not get the most Bang for your Talent point? It increases damage (read: threat) while saving mana by limiting the need for other spells for threat generation: PRICELESS!

Since I have 6 talent points left to spend, I will be thinking long and hard as to where they should go. I have seen many builds that go into the Retribution Tree to get Pursuit of Justice because of the movement speed, but I currently have a Meta Gem that does the same thing. Others invest it in getting Blessing of Kings for their raid party. I have also played with the thought of investing into the Holy Tree to receive an Intellect boost. I’m thinking if I have a threat problem, I will go with the Intellect boost for the extra mana. If not, then I will put them in Blessing of Kings.

Once I hit 80 and start gearing up, I plan to post about my in-game findings and what spec seems to be working for me in Heroics and Raids.

Edit: I (Fulguralis) was able to add a picture to Fuu's post a day later... when she originally posted apparently our network was having a bad day.

Hit Cap Shenanigans

If you head on over to the Warlock's Den, you may notice a wonderful post detailing the calculation of hit cap (it recently got moved off the front page and now I can't find it to link it, apologies). I have also previously linked MC's hit cap musings. What I found was, they're different. How can this be?! But wait a minute... now they're the same. Am I taking crazy pills?!

Upon further investigation, we see that Nibuca commented on her own post that a different scalar was used originally. She has since changed the post to reflect the correct values. Apparently some sources aren't the same as others. For the record, 1% spell hit at 80 = 26.231 hit points. This has been verified by players at level 80 and leads to a final hit cap value of 446 (or 368 with the various talents).

In any case, the bottom line is that, at 80, you'll somehow need to make up the 17% that level 83 bosses will be resisting your spells. The easiest method is to pay attention to your stat screen in your character menu. Mouse over the hit and you'll know right away where you stand. The only problem with this that it doesn't take into account the talents you have specced, so make sure you add that in.

The new numbers above should be good, but in case Blizz changes something, you'll be able to check for yourself.

Pally Power: It Isn't Easy Being For The Light

As Kermit D. Frog best stated, “It isn’t easy being Green”. Well Kermit, it isn’t easy being for the Light either. I’m finding that many people have had their fill of the changes and roll something else. It makes it difficult for those of us who are left behind because then we have to learn through trial and error with only a small sample size.

I had previously played a tank in FFXI (our previous MMO) and I fell in love with the thought of protecting my group and feeling unkillable. I figured that there would be differences in WoW, but the concepts that I enjoyed were still there. Having the ability to adapt to any situation that the game could throw at me: BRING IT ON!

Since I knew that I was going to get the fine opportunity to run and level statically with a crazy Affliction Warlock (*wink wink*), I recognized that I would need to fill in some gaps such as healing, tanking, and the occasional rez. A pally would team up well with a warlock, so I chose to roll a paladin and never looked back. I commenced to do as much research as I possibly could with regard to my class and the game itself. When Fulguralis and I embarked on our adventure, we were graciously accepted into a guild named Generations because of a RL friend of ours. There were many helpful and knowledgeable people within the community so it was a great place to start to collect information and find answers to my questions. This was also when I started to see some problems.

Out of our large selection of members, we only had one protection specced paladin, and, even then, he was rarely online. We had several other tanks but none were paladins. While they could be helpful when it came to general tanking techniques, obviously they couldn’t help me with wielding the Light. This was when I started to dig up blogs and guides on WoWHead, but they all seemed to come up short for me. Most of the time I would come across something useful, and it was either out of date or I would have to read through numerous pages to find only a few goodies. I was also seeing a trend that few are writing anything new about the massive changes that Blizzard keeps throwing on our plates (not to be confused with our gear). It was easy to understand why paladin tanks were rare gems. Long story short, I felt like I was on my own to learn how to tank as a paladin, which caused quite a lot of carnage.

So that brings us to today. I am Fuubaar, a level 74 Protection Paladin with some dented plate armor and a corpse running achievement. Well, Blizzard needs to work on adding that, but if it were there: ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED. I am not going to pretend I’m great at theory-crafting, but I do want to share with you what I’ve learned in order to hopefully save you repair bills and that achievement. Also, I’d love to hear what you have learned through your own trials, and maybe clear up some of the confusion that’s out there with all the changing.

I have three posts planned out. The first one I’m working on will cover my spec and thoughts on the protection tree. Then I’d like to follow up with some gear choices and finish off with some threat generation tips. Look for those soon, as I’m going to try and kick out at least one a week. Please let me know if there are other things you’d like to see, as I’ll probably be doing the research anyways, but will try not to restate what’s already been said.

AN and ATOK FTW

I have to say, I'm a fan of short instances with quests right outside. Especially when two instances are located in relative proximity to one another. Yeah, this is probably a bone thrown to us "casual" gamers; the type that can only get on for one or two hours a night. Its real nice to jump on, get summoned to an instance (or fly in), pick up a couple quests and knock out a dungeon.

There is also a very good trash to boss ratio in these dungeons. I've always felt like in some of the old world dungeons especially, it took you an hour just to get to the first boss. You were killing gobs of trash mobs with no "main event". I really do like the change, even if it is a catering to a more "casual" gameplay style, and I'd like to see this theme continue.

Opinions aside, I was able to run both Azjol-Nerub and Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom (hereafter referred to as AN and ATOK). I will try not to redo what has already been done, and point you instead to some good guides over at fear.win for both AN and ATOK if you want more in-depth coverage. I will, however, try to add a few of my own observations about them. I didn't grab any screenies, so its not a pretty post, and I apologize.

Before you start either of these, there is an NPC right near the summoning stone that will hand out the only three quests that are associated with these two instances. Pick 'em up for some bonus exp after you finish: none of them have you do anything too special.

In AN, there are three bosses and the dungeon is pretty linear. Just trash pull from one to the next. For the first boss, The Gatewatcher (are you the Keymaster? Ghostbusters anyone?), note that once you start pulling the three mobs in front of him, you are then locked into the encounter... make sure you're ready to go before you do that. I had that thing happen when you are leader and have to explain what's going on while starting a fight. Never good for the 'ole DPS. Other than that, he's pretty much cake. Some AoE makes his adds a bit easier.

The second boss is a nightmare for those of you folks with arachnophobia. However, this fight is all about the setup. When you exit the ramp onto the giant web, you will set into motion events which will lead up to the final encounter with the giant spider. A valid, tried, and true method for this fight is just to sit just to the right of where you exited the ramp and pull the large elites that sit in the middle of the web. After you pull the first one, the next two will show up. Pull those and kill 'em one at a time. Then you play the waiting game. You'll see some random non-elites wandering around. A few may come to you and you will just kill them, but Hadronox (the spider lady) will seal up the exits with web, cutting off the supply of adds and then turn her attention on you. While you can fight her earlier with the adds on her helping you, each time these adds die she gains a bit of health back, so it's probably best to just wait her out. She's not really all that hard, but this is the simple method. The only thing to really watch out for is her green AoE cloud of death... move out of it!

The final boss in AN takes place in a circular area that feels very much like a cage match for insects. Make sure everyone is in the circle before you start as a web forcefield will lock them out if you've left someone outside. Anub'arak is the name of this friendly burrower, and he'll take some time to DPS down. You'll have to deal with some adds and avoid the spikes that shoot up from the ground while killing him, but as long as you pick up the elites and kill them quickly, it shouldn't be a problem.

Next, head on over to ATOK to finish satiating your inner insectivore. This instance adds an extra boss, but is still pretty short. It is done well, and even evokes the feeling of claustrophobia at some points.

The first boss you encounter is Elder Nadox. This dude hits decently hard, so you'll want to let your tank focus on him when you need to pick up his "Guardian" elite adds. When they hatch, they will make him immune to damage, so DPS will need to kill those guardians. They're not too tough though and we had a hunter tank/kite them pretty easily as they don't hit very hard and can be killed quickly (we also had no other melee DPS). Swap back and forth and lay on some AoE to knock out the little guys that hatch as well.

Another Prince character (Teldaram this time) waits further in the instance. It should be noted that you will need to deactivate his magical forcefield by clicking on some orbs on two platforms leading up to the boss area. This isn't a Zeldanian puzzle (I think I made that word up), so you should be able to figure it out easy enough. The boss will do some chain fire damage that you'll want to spread out to avoid, plus he'll pin down a random party member and suck life from them. Knock him around real good (like 40k damage or something) to get him off. No one likes an uninvited mounter. We're not steeds mind you. He should die quickly enough though, and you'll spilled enough royal blood by now to call it a revolution.

A long, claustrophobic tunnel later and some more trash will bring you to Jedoga Shadowseeker aka "that floating lady". This fight can be tricky to learn. If you have a pally tank, its good to stack up when you run in to begin this fight to AoE down the little guys that will swarm you. The encounter begins when she lands and you'll just want to DPS her until she floats back up and calls for a sacrifice. It is imperative that you kill the minion before it reaches her little sacrifice area, as she will buff way up if she's allowed to complete the ritual and wipe you like single ply. Other than that, make sure you avoid the lightning circle of death and stay within the group of observers and you'll be fine.

The final fight takes place after you traverse a long, web ramp (Blizz loves the spiders in this x-pac). You'll pull the three blokes wandering around the boss chamber first, and then engage the boss himself, Mr. Herald Volazj. This big ugly is one of the more enjoyable fights so far, IMO. While you're tanking and spanking he'll throw in some AoE shadowbolts, but nothing big. The fun comes when he does an ability called "Insanity" which will pit you against the four other members of your party. Don't panic though, they each only have 4k health. If I were you, I'd take out the healers first and then just DPS down the rest of your group as you see fit. As a 'lock, I dotted everyone and laughed when they died so quick. The good news is that then you can help your remaining party members with their "insanity". After a certain amount of time, the remaining adds will appear to all and join in the fight as the boss resumes, so its good to get 'em DPS'ed down prior to that. It should be no problem if you have a couple good DPS'ers as they can help you after they take care of their own if you happen to be a healer or tank. All in all, a really fun fight.

Well, in any case, those are my thoughts on these two wonderful instances. Look for the first installment of Pally Power tomorrow, as I believe Fuu is typing up her post this evening. It may take an extra day, what with Thanksgiving festivities and all, but stay tuned and have a Happy Thanksgiving! If you're like us, you'll be spending at least half of it in the "new world" of WoW :-). Christopher Columbus ain't got $&!# on us.

Pally Power (Not The Addon) and Some Links.

So my partner in crime has decided that she would like to contribute to the blogosphere. I plan to let her have a couple posts to cover all things Pally. Now, before you all complain: "This is a Warlock blog! Paladins are the Light to our Dark!", I will agree with you. However, the title of this blog is Killing 'Em Slowly, and that is indeed what a protection paladin does. Thus, not completely off topic. A reach? Sure, but it is my blog.

I will try to put a tag on her posts so you know what to expect, and will still cover the things I enjoy. Namely: darkness, death, warlockery, DKs, and some officer stuff. Fuubaar will guest post with the lighter side of things and perhaps add another officer perspective. We'll see how it goes. Definitely give us feedback. We're both learning and enjoying sharing our experiences.

Look for her first post to come soon, I don't know the topic yet, only that she has ideas. She wanted me to note that she is not as fast as I am at cranking stuff out, so be patient with her. If it does not interest you, all 10 of you (yay double digit readers and thank you!!), then just skip me that day :-). However, I'm sure most of you will enjoy another perspective on things, especially if she proves helpful.

Other than that, not much else is going on. If you're tuning in for DK information, check out The Stoppable Force for a great post on rotations (pretty similar to my musings on a DK rotation earlier). Also, Skeleton Jack has proven to be a great resource for me. Kudos to him for not letting little things like sleep prevent him from getting to 80 so dang fast AND finding the energy to come up with some good posts.

The Warlock love is a little thin right now as we haven't had any major breaking news for a while. MC talked about the benefits of Shadow Embrace which I picked up in my lastest respec and am finding it really easy to keep SE up with my rotation, plus it's beneficial in the DPS department. It's hard to tell how I'm really doing on DPS since I've been instancing and questing with people of all different levels. I've really grown into the four button technique that I laid out just before the expansion, and it seems very flexible and easy to keep up, IMO. At the very least, my DPS has been competitive for the top spot in the 5-mans even when running with a hunter two levels above me (who happens to be a very good player as well: we often competed in our raids for top spot).

I haven't even replaced a whole lot of gear, just picked up the dagger from the first boss in UK for the most part. I've been told that will last quite a while, so if you don't have it, it may be worth your time to pick it up. I should be catching up to the levelling curve a bit this weekend after Thanksgiving festivities because I will have some time off work.

Oh, and if you haven't seen it yet, there is a pretty cool boot enchant (Icewalker I believe) that can help you pick up some extra hit early on. I haven't gotten too deep in levelling my profs yet, but that just stuck out.

Finally, if you're looking for something to read and it's not blocked where you are. Head on over to The Warlock's Den via my link on the right. I have to read this on my iPhone at work (/evilgrin), so I don't have clever links for you. However, they have a bunch of great guides up on there already; All the 5-man instances are discussed, there's a great listing of the current crop of daily quests in Northrend (if you've hit 80 or really can't wait to get dailies?!), and a great discussion regarding spirit and its importance (or lack thereof) to Warlocks everywhere. Check it out.

Swappin Specs

I hit 73 and decided to do my first ever respec. First ever?! Yeah, that's right, I don't really like to respec a lot. Also, since I'm not a hybrid, I don't really have reason to. I loves me some afflictioning, and that's the end of it. Dual specs will be nice to try other stuff, but I'm not going to waste gold when I know what I want in the first place.

However, I had specced for levelling prior to the whole healthstone change they slipped in. If you don't know what I'm referring to, be aware that now you can only have ONE healthstone no matter what level. Most warlocks have already experienced this, but I do run into the random druid or hunter now and then that doesn't get out much. (Just kidding; I'm jealous I'm not at 80 yet with as much win).

This means that that one talent point I always specced into my Improved Healthstone is pretty useless. You should either fill it up or leave it blank, as everyone will want the best stone if there is more than one warlock. If none of you have the improved, then the rest of 'em can shut up and be happy with what they get. It's just not really worth the points anymore, IMO. Thus, I needed to respec out of it to not waste that point. I took this opportunity to re-examine my spec too and perhaps find some other little tweaks.

This brought Improved Life Tap onto my radar. Since getting haunt worked into my rotation, I have never been low on mana. Not even close. If I'm ever below 50%, I basically get a free life tap every time haunt runs up without even worrying a healer if I'm clever. This made me question how useful the "Improved" version is. For the most part, I "demon tap" anyways. Couldn't these two points be better spent elsewhere? I think yes, and will see how much I miss the bonus from life tap. So far, it was only a problem when I was talking on the cell phone while fighting a boss (bad, bad warlock I know, but it was my mother and gaming is still not a good enough excuse not to chat with her apparently). In that case, I just didn't have the fingers to tap enough. In another fight where my puppy died, it still wasn't a problem, so I'm thinking this is a good place to trim points if you're feeling like I am.

I'm also getting rid of my points in Eradication (the haste talent). I haven't really noticed it and won't miss it. I will probably fill this one up by the time I hit 80, but no use having it now as there are other talents that will give you more bang for your talent point.

I'm still not worried about pushback, so I'm not filling up fel concentration either. I still liked the 2 points I had in it though and didn't feel like putting them elsewhere, so I will just leave it.

So, for now, with my "extra" talent points I'm going to fill up Nightfall to get more of those procs. It's pretty sweet when I start proccing with Nightfall and the Glyph of Corruption... S-bolt machine gun ftw. I also plan on getting the second tier destruction talent that increases the hit rating for my shadow bolt to match Suppression for my DoTs. This way I will be hit capped (356 with these two talents) much earlier and can focus on other stats. At some point, I'll probably want move those points out as I get extra hit on upgrades anyways. In my experience, that won't be until I've been raiding for a while though.

So, here's what I look like at 73:


And here is what I plan to be at 80:


I'm filling up a couple of talents earlier than I'd planned to take advantage of the bonus damage. Mainly this is the Shadow Embrace talent, which I'm finding stacks nicely when you have a haunt early on and then hit shadow bolts later. The nice part is that each stack appears to reset the debuff timer, so it doesn't run out too quick and stays up the entirity of a boss fight with little to no thought.

All in all, I think its a good plan and not a bad way to spend my 1G. :-)