Brown sugar!

We interrupt this blog for an announcement.

Guess what dropped?

You may now go back to yuir headless horseman mountless lives.

For some reason I can't explain...

State of team Noobed.

Woke up at 4 this morning to get at some scourge invasion. Managed to get into a group in Wintersping, and score my shadow of doom kills fer Maj and Unbound, as well as tons of runes fer each.

Need to do this with Mabd...

Maj got her sinister squashling last night. Now, only Unbound is without holiday achievement goodness.

Maj blizzarding over a prot pally at the scourge sites was a thing of beauty. God I loves my frost.

Maj and Unbound still need one wand zap each.

Havin gearing issues with Unbound/Enhance. Her enhance set is mostly kara level junk, with two blues. Now the crap that drops offa scourge in the invasion isn't half bad... but it stacks haste at the expense of crit. And.. well... crit is now one of the most important stats fer enhance. Moar crit = moar spell crit = moar elemental devastation = moar white damage.

Meh. Man, that zombie event was awesome. Ima sad to see it go. Is it sick of me to wish that all the orphans in shat weren't considered critters? So the zombies could chew on em?

Yeah, probably. Didn't keep me from takin a screen of a swarm of orphans runnin from a wall of zombies.

Things I don't understand. People who think that Blizz ended the zombie event cuz of people complaining. Like melvin.

"No, the zombie plague ends today. They found a cure."

"Oh, enough people must have complained!"

I'm just fallin from grace...

Majeure reconsiders her plans to become Warbabe of the Horde.

Um.. the zombie event has been a great deal of fun. If you've enjoyed as much as I... here's another book recommendation. Everyone I know who's read it has loved it. With the exception of Melvin, who has no taste.

Let's see... over 15k gold now. I should be set fer expansion.


Mage thoughts...

Fingers of frost was not what I thought it would be... its so much more... exploitable. You can get that double tap in quite easily, so you get three hits with bonus crit. And that damn insta cast fireball procs like a madman. I tend to miss most of em.

Shammy thoughts...

Yeah, I ran recount, and beat up onna dummy. Lava Lash with a flametongue offhand increases damage over double windfury by a noticable amount. Now I'm gettin into cooldown issues... between stormstrike, lava lash, shock and maelstrom lightning bolts, ima getting abilities pop before I can press the keys. Maybe a shot rotation macro would help...

Also... I found out why my white damage seemed so high... elemental devastation, the elemental tree talent that gives +9% melee crit with for 7 seconds following a spell crit, does not apply to windfury hits, stormstrike or lava lash. Just to regular melee hits. My regular melee crit rate after testing is about 33%. My special attacks are around 24%. That should tell you how often elemental devastation is up... 3 points well spent.

Hunter thoughts.

Never disengage when yuir fightin a frost mage on top of a mountain peak.

You should be dancing, yeah!

First... Amazon.com has a sale on select albums every weekend. Last week they had the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever. Um... be prepared for bizzare blog post titles ahead.

Second... can anyone give me a link to something that explains how to set up a RSS feed for a blogspot site? I've looked before, and couldn't find a damn thing. :(

Third. I respecced ice. Ripper, you little bastard, you never told me they made blizzard able to crit. OMFG. I aint goin back. Frozen heart forever! (I had a run where I got over 88% sustained crit rate on Blizzard...)

Fourth. Mabd got herself a gorilla. And NOW I understand what kill command is for...

Fifth. I really resent enhancement shammydom. Ima gonna finish up all my Outland quests this weekend, respec resto, and not look back.

Sixth... flametongue buff stacks with dual wield. Flametongue glyph stacks with dual wield. Considering how crappy the top of elemental is... this might mean something if blizz ever puts offhand spell weapons in the game.

Seventh. Thundering strikes now affect spell as well as melee crit chances. Itsa tier 2 enhance shammy talent. 5 points = +5% crit. I was able to get unbound's spell crit to 28% with double stacked flametongue. And her spell power over 900 with her crappy enhance gear... I really doan know what to make of this. But whatever build... you really wanna put some points in the first coupla tiers of enhance now.

Eighth. Melvin loves his fire mage, but is muttering about goin frost. Magebert went back to the POM/Pyro build. I doan know what to do about these two. Anyway... melvin claims that the chance for hot streak to proc is greatly enhanced when you get a chance to shoot an ally in the back. Take it for what it's worth.

Ninth. Melvin is deeply dissatisfied with his elemental shammy. Melvin doesn't bother with flametongue. And he put all 61 points into that crappy tree...

Tenth. "Melvin, have I told you how damn much gold Ima makin offa inscription?"
"YES. Every freaking time you talk to me!"

Over 12k gold now, my peeps. Now if i can just enroll all these zombies into my pyramid scheme.

Lookin fer my hot stuff...

I told Dammy that I was runnin enhance shammy figures, and he asked me fer a post. Plz note... my gear is pretty terrible. I really need to reenchant moongoose.... And two of the blue pvp set... the shame...

First... if you've been playin a shammy fer a while...

Take a good, damn long look at all yuir totems now.

Strength of earth now gives agil as well as str. While, with the recent nerf to str (now str = 1AP, instead of 2), you get exactly the same amount of +ap... you also get about 2-2.5% melee crit offa the agil (depending on if you specced the imp totem talent.)

Windfury totem now helps us. A LOT. +16% attack speed, +20% if you have imp totems. Normally, my melee damage is a lot closer to my windfury damage. Note, this screen shot is one of a few dozen I took after messing with diff totems, etc...

Flametongue totem... etc. Almost 200 +spell power.

Anyway... dammy, that 16.5% of damage offa lightning bolt... thats all maelstrom weapon. Note the count. On different iterations, I was throwin 4 bolts fer every 5 earth shocks I threw... so we're lookin at a maelstrom proc (5 stack) about every 7-9 seconds. This can be a light bolt... or it can be a healing wave. Either way... its all good. You aint goin down til you run outta mana.

Which comes to that other talent... static shields... other people have noted that this talent only seems to proc offa regular melee attacks.. not windfury or spells. And this... just isnt worth it. Not when you can pop up a water shield and be throwin a 3k heal at yourself every 9 secs. (Note that the RNG loves messin with Maelstrom... I had weird results pop up) You can see from the screenshot... about 5% (this test was without the LS glyph) damage isnt worth givin up the mana of water shield. And if your gettin beat on... keepin mana up for heals or light bolts would seem a better deal...

Spirit wolves... about 175 dps fer my char base. I don't know if they scale with AP or SP. However... they DO get totem benefits. Str of Earth and Windfury will boost DPS to about 225. I need to find a way to test their healing function.

Lava lash? I should play with it... but I really don't like the look. Plus, anything that makes an offhand attack will screw up windfury procs.

Imp stormstrike? While I like the decreased SS time (and note that the screen doesnt show WF procs offa SS... when doin rotation, try to time SS to land right after a melee attack that DIDNT proc WF... this will do wonders for damage...) the additional nature charges are now useless. You really can't apply more then 4 sources of nature damage to the target over 8 seconds unless they're beating on you and you have light shield up.

Static shields... if you need the dps boost, use the regular shield. You'll have to refresh it more often, but if you need the dps that badly, you aint worrying about mana. Otherwise, stick with water shield. Inna raid, static shields seems counter productive. The minor DPS increase interferes with effective mana regeneration. And in Pvp... well, assa enhance shammy, I really don't like yuir odds either way, so lets leave it at that.

Things I left outta this build... the group buff talent... I'll respec and take it, 10% more AP really boosts about 65% of my damage. Meh... moar messin around to do...

Now take it back...

Just a few screen shots...

What do I need to do to make revered with SMC? Storm the gates of hell? Check.




Yeah, allies... try to get this. Just you try...







First mammoth sighting!







K, yeah, I DID love a squirrel... but I was drunk, and looking for a ram.






Biggest change to the game so far... damn I love bein able to wolf on water...






What the path to the Headless Horseman looks like for alliance on a pvp server. And yeah, suckit. I died enough times just tryin to fish in Stormwind, you evil bastards.





Otherwise, you wouldn't believe me.

Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash

So, I went a little nuts. OK... a lot nuts. But I DID WARN PEOPLE. And no one listened, cuz no one ever listens.

One of the sadder jokes from my job at the store... every so often we'd have to close for some reason or another. And then we'd put a sign up on the locked doors... "CLOSED TIL"

I always made fun of whoever wrote the sign, sayin "Why make the sign? You'll just have to teach the bastards how to read..."

Anyway, the signs were there for insane herbage action following the introduction of glyphs. And, oh boy... first of all, glyphs are unlike any other crafting talent. The best glyphs aren't necessarily the glpyhs made with the highest level mats. Every damn ret paladin needs Glyph of Crusader Strike, and Glyph of Seal of Command. The first uses blindweed/sungrass level herbs, only the second uses outlands level herbage. Of the two, crusader strike is sellin much, much better. (30g each, and I could get more.. why 30g? Cuz there were none at the AH, and people started beggin to buy em at that price)

Blindweed and sungrass are sellin fer 50g a stack. So is kingsblood. I bought a lot of that fer 5g a stack just last week...

To this point, I've made 2k offa herbs and glyphs. And yes, glyphs are actually selling for more than the herbs required to make them. AND I have about 1k in auctions still up. As well asa ton of mats left to set up friends.

There are few things as addicting as checkin yuir auctions. Even when its only virtual money... its still pretty damn nice.

I was too weak to give in, too strong too lose...

Inscription at 250.

Downloaded the patch last night... was unable to get on the server.

Woke up, bright and early... got on, started leveling inscription.

World crashes...

Get back on, level some more...

World crashes...

Get back on....

Server goin down message...

Take a shower, get back on, start leveling again...

World crashes...

Get back on, put up 70 auctions of herbs and glyphs, world crashes, go to work...

Still doan know about mage... frost would seem the smart choice, but glyph of arcane missiles extends range another 5'

This would make them have a range of 41. And Arcane missiles witha range of 41 are just pure goodness.

If words could make wishes come true

So, ah, have you read Harry Potter?

One thing I tend to dislike about book lists is that they pretty much tell me what I already know. I mean, yeah, I've read all these. The trick issa book list of books people would enjoy that not everyone has read. And, since Ima who I am, it can't just be a book list. So, here, in honor of patch day... stuff gamers would like.

BOOKS

The Compleat Traveller in Black.

Um... the finest of existential fantasty. If you like this, check out Shockwave Rider as well, Brunner's response to the 60's pop psychology hit Future Shock. Oh, a teaser? The main character has to grant the first wish you make in his presence. He has a choice as to whether to grant the second...

The Vampire Genevieve

Set in the warhammer universe. If ya like angsty vampires, this is the best thing yuil ever read. Recently rereleased... I lent my copy to Melvin, and he couldn't understand what was goin on. Higher praise I cannot give. The author is a pretty interesting figure in his own right, I've mentioned him before...

Ima not gonna mention C. S. Freidman or Guy Gavriel Kay. They get mentioned enough. But if you haven't ready anything by them, it would be worth doin so...

The Book of Jhereg

James Bond inna fantasy setting? I realized how sneaky good the author was on the third book, when the main character mentions how important the number 17 is. I check the book. 17 chapters. I check the first two... each of them has 17 chapters...

He wrote a book where the chapters each had three parts. A one line introduction, the lines together telling the story of the main character casting a spell. A few paragraphs about the main character's childhood. And then the story itself, which begins and ends with the casting of a spell, and the blood of a god.

Then there was the one where every chapter started with a line from a laundry list... the latest book is out in hardback... gonna be a long wait.

Illegal Aliens

They rereleased it! The funniest sci fi satire of all time! Um... Phil Foglio and Nick Pollatta. How to describe? Aliens make first contact with Earth.. AND ARE NOT PREPARED!

The Damned (series)

Allen Dean Foster... the flip side of illegal aliens. The universe is in the middle of a massive war between a race of psychers that can mind control, who want to bring all sentient life together in a effort to transcend sentience, and everyone else, who don't want to lose free will. The problem? No true sentient can bear the thought of violence. Only a handful can actually take up arms, even in the face of an ultimate threat.

Then they find humanity.

MOVIES

Night Watch

A russian vampire movie. And remember kiddies... russians doan really believe in happy endings.

Gruz 200

No link on this, its not out in the states yet. I've only managed to watch about 2/3 of it via other sources... um... it's another russian movie by a director that got pissed off at Putin's infatuation with the soviet past. The title refers to the material (zinc) that the russian army made coffins outta to ship home their dead. And its about a serial killer who is tormenting a girl in an attempt to prove to her that there is no god... just as socialism tells us... (and when I say torment... I mean... well, again, no happy endings...)

Three O'Clock High

Kinda a cult classic now. Bombed when it came out in the 80's due to the unintentional drug reference. (It's actually a reference to High Noon, with whom it share a plot...) Kid has to meet a bully fer a fight at the end of the school day. Funny funny funny.

My Man Godfrey

My favorite screwball comedy. Of all time. Produced at the height of the depression, a ditzy rich socialite goes on a scavenger hunt for "a forgotten man." Which, indeed, she ends up finding.

ANIME

Please Save My Earth

Its dated, it really has no ending.. but its one of the saddest things I've ever seen. About obsessive love and redemption.

We won, we won, then we shot that BB gun!

Ripper has a mage talent post up, with his usual introspection, thoughtfulness, and complete lack of poetic sense.

(How can a fire mage NOT take world in flames! Cmon, even if it did nothing, the name alone...)

I think 61 frost. I like arcane, but until I can get mage armor that makes a mage all but immune to locks (at level 71 it reduces magic effect duration by 50%...) Ima stayin frost and gankin warriors... especially with shattered barrier, which gives a free frost nova when yuir shield breaks. Both fire and frost look to make aoe grinding ecstasy again!

Hunters... BRK hassa nice brief on the talent trees up on wowinsider. My only issues... he really needed a short bit on the massive change to kill command, and what this means in the greater scheme of things. Blizz is tryin ferra synergy with kill command and certain hunter talents.

Kill Command

3% of base mana	45 yd range

Instant cast	1 min cooldown

Give the command to kill, increasing your pet's damage done from special attacks by 60%. Each special attack done by the pet reduces the damage bonus by 20%.

K... its no longer a free damn attack. This is bad fer the steady shot spammin macro thingy. However, special attacks, such as bite, claw, monstrous bite, or the gorilla thunder stomp, all become that much moar evil. 1 min cooldown. Ouch. If yuir not bm, you will NEVER use this. If you are, read on...

Focused Fire	Rank 2

All damage caused by you is increased by 2% while your pet is active and the critical strike chance of your pet's special abilities is increased by 20% while Kill Command is active.

K.. pet does 60% moar damage. Pet gets 20% moar crit.

Cobra Strikes	Rank 3

You have a 60% chance when you critically hit with Arcane Shot, Steady Shot or Kill Shot to cause your pet's next 2 special attacks to critically hit.

Hmm... see, this just doesnt work too well with that 1 min cooldown. If it was less, maybe. However, if ya lookin fer burst damage, get the devilsaur to stack 3 of these...

Monstrous Bite	Rank 6

25 Focus	Melee Range

Instant	10 sec cooldown

Your devilsaur ferociously bites the enemy, causing 91 to 123 damage, and boosts its own damage by 3% for 12 seconds. This effect stacks 3 times.

Then get cobra strikes to proc, hit bestial wrath, kill command, and watch sparky go to town.

But, thats a ton of effort for a coupla quick crits. So, overall, the combo looks like failz. At least til that damn cooldown is removed. So, a thing to keep an eye on.

Which is why ima goin survival. First.. one of the most changed talents in the game is this one...

Master Marksman	Rank 5

Increases your critical strike chance by 5%, and reduces the Mana cost of your Steady Shot by 25%.

It went from a flat +10% to rap to a thing of the gods. A shame its in the MM tree and I'll never see it.

But ima gonna have something in MM... a 18MM/43Surv build to start. I was playin with the numbers... Careful Aim and Hunter vs Wild will both raise my rap by about 250. Lightning Reflexes will give another 80 rap, and 2% of crit. So... about 2k rap, and 40% crit. Master Tactician should proc often enough for another 10%. No Escape and Survival Instincts give another 10% in the right situation. Thats 60%. Did I mention Lock and Load for two free arcane shots at a 60% crit onna frost trapped toon? What about one point in Expose Weakness to boost my RAP by about 150 when I start the crit pain train? Or Improved Arcane Shot for +15% damage?

Just remember a coupla points in Improved Stings to boost that already uber buffed Wyvern Sting damage. (only 1k damage at 70, but 2500 damage at 80!)

Screw that, I need a few moar of these... !!!!!. AND MAYBE CAPS. Remember, Lock and Load will proc offa serpent sting.

So yeah, survival. Gonna have to train uppa Hyena. And maybe finda mage with Torment the Weak to pair with.

So.. on to shammiedom. Enhance fer fun, and itsa fairly straitforward. Some notes on changes. Enhance Shammies can now crit spells. And hate strength and want agility. (And int!)

But probably the biggest thing for shammies is the general utility of the first three tiers of enhance.

First tier...

Ancestral Knowledge	Rank 5

Increases your intellect by 10%.

Used to just be +5% mana. Now it boosts spell crit and AP (if ya got the talent later). 5 points well spent.

Next...

Improved Shields	Rank 3

Increases the damage done by your Lightning Shield orbs by 15%, increases the amount of mana gained from your Water Shield orbs by 15% and increases the amount of healing done by your Earth Shield orbs by 15%.

This really... looks nice. The lightning shield talentsmakes it a lot more useful for purposes of enhance dps. Any boost to ES healing issa must ferra resto build. And Elemental can make a lotta use outta this.

Also in this tier... Imp ghost wolf. And yeah, I know its silly, but its still uberfun fer all build...

Third tier...

Elemental Weapons	Rank 3

Increases the damage caused by your Windfury Weapon effect by 40% increases the spell damage on your Flametongue Weapon by 30% and increases the bonus healing on your Earthliving Weapon by 30%.

30% moar spell power. At level 80, thats 62 or so, not too shabby. (Remember, wrath of air totem is GONE!) The windfury bonus is pure gold, dps wise. And earthliving.. thats just a free damn heal. Nuttin wrong with that.

And the piece de resistance!

Shamanistic Focus
Reduces the mana cost of your Shock spells by 45%.

Um... another subtle change that completely changes the talent.
It USED to be, a 60% reduction in the cost of yuir next shock after a melee crit. No more... so... elemental shammies speccing this far into enhance can really do worse than to take this. Resto shammies as well... no more downgrading frost or earth shocks fer control at no mana cost. Ifn yuir gonna pvp build, yuil be at least 11 in enhance by the end...

Time to drink till the patch comes up...

I was a liar, you were a cheat

Plans...

Moar herbage! Must haz moar herbz fer the patch!

Pick arcane or frost for the mage. Ripper could help a lot with a short guide to the new arcane tree... (hint hint)

Pick BM or Surv fer the hunter to plays with. Then level my new devilsaur after I pick BM.

Tells Arms&Fury Ima happy he's my friend. Then figure a way to fit my new insult in... (Was that yuir ass, or are they sellin rogaine to yetis now?)

Dread Thanksgivin. Bruce offered to pay for the hookers if I'd set it up (but to keep it under $500 each). I haven't the heart to explain the whole WotLK to him... leveling to 80 > hookers. I doan know if this says good things or bad things about my priorities...

Ignore Melvin. He and his bro are levelin new chars. Yep... Melvin's got himself a Pally! And his bro a rogue. This'll be the 5th 70 fer Melvin, and 6th 70 fer the Magebert.

Bitch moar about shammy changes. A 10/51 elemental/enhance build fer shammies is very doable... my current worries... unlike resto, I have no problems paring enhance down to 51 points.

Start gatherin moar +crit gear for my resto set. It's gonna be important.

I really need to get my shammy revered with both shatar and thrallmar. This might have to wait till Arms&Fury goes protect. Will he change his name? Probably not, hesa lazy. "The warrior formally know as Arms&Fury."

BTW... like Blizzard is really gonna solve itemization by making shammies rogues in mail. Yeah, yeah, agil gives us AP now, but +crit applies to our spells... +crit > agil... leading to "It's got +crit on it, that's a SHAMMY item!"

I will talk to anyone...

Posts two days inna row! Aint you people lucky.

Damn I wish I could access wowhead or wowwiki at work :(

Anyway... Dammerung has brought his shammy to our server, and posted the glyphs hesa interested in.

So... I already did a bit about how the lesser healing wave glyph makes the healing wave spell obsolete.

BTW... this is the healing wave glyph. What does it do? Why... it turns healing wave into a gimped chain heal! JOY! Yep, doan even bother training this POS spell.

So... one weird thing about the glyphs is how useless they are for most classes. Mages... meh. The evocation glyph actually has me pretty excited. Its purely pvp, but a 60% heal for a non healing class is still a 60% heal.

And the armor glyphs are also nice. Well, molten armor and mage armor. Ice armor is still pretty useless. Unless you deep frost and you pvpin.

But the mage armor glyph can allow a properly specced mage 80% mana regen while casting.

Um... anyone else see this as broken?

K... screw mages. I'll let ripper talk about them. And the world doan need another hunter blog. Tho the hunter glyphs are kinda disappointing.

No, lets talk about the new shammy weapon buffs. We gettin three buffs fer the future. Old favorite, windfury. Flametongue, buffed to add +spellpower as well as fire damage onna melee hit. And earthliving weapon, a +healing (ima assuming this is also spellpower) as well assa 20% chance to proc a 450 or so smart heal on the party upon healing spell cast.

First... earthliving. I can haz moar random healz floatin around? I mean really.. the next talent change fer resto shammies will give 50% health regeneration to anyone standing in their shadows...

When the patch hits, ima have a ton of testin to do. But really... I wont be surprised if I getta random heal effect just by /lol.

Remember... thesa smart healz. So, if you gotta single target to healz... cahnce to proc extra healz on em is just sick. As well... thassa flat 20% chance to proc. So, spamming lesser healing wave instead of (inferior) healing wave gives ya a double chance to get that extra 450 (at level 70). Plz... can I haz moar bonuses to the monkey bot spam healz?

What could be better than that? Hows about the new flametongue? Gives 96 spell damage... and then there's this. 2% moar crit? Um... so Dammy. Looks like blizz is really pushin enhance shammies to go dual with windfury on main, and flametongue on offhand. 96 +spell and 2% moar spell crit aint too damn bad.. plus the +fire damage part of spell.

I know Unbound is gonna be tryin this.

Not to mention fer resto. 2% spell crit is huge. I mean... thats 2 talent points, right there. Not too damn many glyphs are worth 2 talent points. And witha new emphasis on crits via resto (remember, earthshield can and will crit...)

So... will I be usin earthlivin or flametongue? If I got the glyph... I'll have to go flametongue, cept in pve healin situations. And even then... I shouldn't be challenged.

My main problem right now is lookin atta level 70 resto pvp build come the patch. Gotta take elemental shields. (gives 15% moar es healin, and 15% moar water shield mana regen.)

That means prob 10 in enhance. (WTB insta ghost wolf!) Which means only 51 in resto... which means... no mana tide totem.

My mind is stilla boggled.

Into the ocean, end it all

So anyway.. fer my 'hoof homies. Go here, and check out what glyphs you want, come the patch.

Remember to look at the trainer part. If it say's "Northrend Only..." itsa expansion glyph.

You can equip 2 major glyphs. The minor glyphs are all discoveries, so I won't be able to make them for a while. Once you've picked them out, in game mail the request to Majeure.

*Edit... pick out as many as you want... I'll try to send a stack of 5 each so you can swap in and out. I'll need to make a ton to level, and I'd rather not waste the leveling on stuff that can't be used. Just be aware... yuir limited to equipping 2 majors till you hit level 80.

How bad was arena last week? I respecced Unbound to enhance for a bit. I still gotta read Herk the riot omnibus. (We far beyond mere acts at this point.)

And moar news on resto shammies come patch. I respecced back to resto, and moved a few points around. To the point, I ditched all my healing wave talents for other ones.

Here's why I have healing wave. First... in my resto gear, with +1900 healz... I crit for 7.5k ish. Reg heal is around 4.5-5k.

Lesser healing wave is 2.5k regular, 4k crit.

Mana wise, healing wave is moar efficient. But if I need a mana efficient heal, chain heal, even on one target, gets moar heal per buck. If other party members are takin damage, its not even close. Chain hits normal for about 3.5-4k on first target, and costs about 30% less mana.

Why? Cuz offa talent that increases chain heal by 20%. Everyone at this point should understand healing coefficents. Thats right... chain heal gets 71.43% vs healing wave's 85.71%. What happens with +20% to the heal? Chain heals coefficient goes to... 85.72%.

And that's just the first jump. Its not even funny if you start healin moar than one target.

Mana cost? Chain heal, 540 mana. Healing wave, 740 mana. Chain heal costs 72% of the mana. (talents change the mana cost, but not the ratio.)

So... when the bulk of the heal amount comes from the spell itself... healing wave is more efficient. Healing wave is about 2300, chain heal is about 900 (1100 with two points in talent). But the mechanic of the game changed completely with blizzard opening the gates to +healz lands, come burning crusade. Now... barely more than half of healing wave's healz come from the base amount. And as +healz power increases... chain heal becomes more and more efficient. As it stands, with +1900 healz, I get 69% the primary target healing for 72% of the mana. AND I get the chance to heal two moar targets.... and this isnt even counting raid buffs. Raid buffed, with another +300 healz or so... ima gettin moar than 72% of the healin of healin wave for 72% of the mana.

Blizz's answer? A 3 point talent, healing way, that applies a buff to a target gettin healing waved. It stacks 3 times, and each instance adds +6% healing from healing wave... The buff lasts 15 seconds. So... in order to be useful, I have to be spamming my most powerful healing spell every 15 seconds or less on the same target. And the other members of the party have to not be takin damage. And the constant damage has to require more than 3 heals.

You know any fights like this? Pure tank and spank?

K... so its useful once inna blue moon... I can see this. Which is why I had this talent until last night. True... only a tank is gonna be able to use healz that powerful... but thats the heart of instance runnin, right? Not to mention the most important part of this... given all 8 talent points, this provides a shammies best healz per second. (HPS)

The problem is... at +1900... I don't see fights where I have to worry about hps.

Then comes WotLK. And the mechanics change again. Earth shield becomes more powerful. And by extension, massively mana efficient. Crits add even moar in the way of smart healz. And Ima sorry... if I crit a healing wave onna tank... and 7.5k aint enough... itsa fubar. So... I can cast lesser healing wave... get the 4k crit... and the 40% bonus can go to the tank... ferra 5.5k heal. None of which will be wasted.

The only problem is that lesser healz have half the healing of a full healing wave. They have exactly half the healing coefficient. And they cost 61% of the mana. Fer almost exactly half the heal.

So ifn Ima blizzard... I'd do everything in my power to avoid makin lesser healing wave a more efficient way to heal a tank, right? Right?

Not so much.

New figures? 60% of the healz fer 61% of the mana. Itsa faster, a lot less likely to overheal, and much better for group healing. EXACTLY the same hps of healing wave with 5 points in reduced cast time. (But not with healing way, which costs another 3 talent points)

Not only will I not be speccing for healing wave... I won't even put it on my spell bar.

BTW... anyone with shammy experience in WotLK... do chain heal crits and earth shield crits effect that new ghost heal effect? Ima thinking yes to first and no to second...

Please allow me to introduce myself....

Beo and dammy came to live with us on the hoof! Woof!

Also... I maybe went a little nuts with the whole "preparing for inscription" thing.

Maybe. Just a little.

Through the storm we reach the shore

Shout out to Dammy, who stopped by the 'hoof last night. Sadly, I was the only one on, but we chatted while Unbound was knee deep in allies at WSG. (and put his char in the guild... now to lure beo here as well!)

"Damn, they got the flag back."

"Hold on... healin now"

"K, we won."

Says dammy, "that was fast!"

"Ima just that good."

8 min win. I hadda prot warrior with 17k life runnin flag. Unbound has 1900 +healz. We pretty much ran through 5 allies three times in short succession, while rest of team cept em from gettin our flag.

It work the same damn way... I'd keep prot warrior up, earthbind, then the snared allies would give up on catchin the flag, and just gank me. I'd rez just in time to catch the warrior comin outta silverwing keep with the flag again.

I'm just sayin... in BG's... you do as much damage to the enemies' minds as to their health. And they really, really, really can't resist a helpless target, no matter how long it takes to kill.

So... ripper went mental. We gotta get this boy into the expansion before he completely loses it. And dammy... ripper has had a lotta stuff on mages.

The decay of the mage class has been a sore point for us fer quite some time. The expansion holds a great deal of promise... and heartbreak. So, since I've been asked... my take on what pain we can expect with "ECHOES OF DOOM!"

/ominous music

Look. Class balance is wow is a tricky damn thing. I remember the original Magic the card game. The idea with old school magic was... common cards. useful. Uncommon cards... more powerful, but moar a niche thing. Rare cards... uberpowerful.

Noone ever saw the possibility of people buyin so damn many cards that they would be able to make decks of nothing but rare cards. And.. well, itsa game. You gotta make it so skill counts SOMETHING. Not just who can afford the most best stuff.

Wow suffers the same blindspots. Like elemental shammies. Yeah, let me put 7 points into fire totem talents, then give me an top tier talent that makes it all useless. Which is why I HATE elemental shammies.

(Kinda like the lock demonology thing. Yeah, 25 points makin yuir pet better... now get rid of it for yuir 51st point talent.)

Pet classes... yeah, end content is fun, but you'll never see it cuz yuir pet dies 1.73 seconds into the raid. How long did it take them to fix this?

K.. when judging a new talent tree... you gotta look fer synergy. Do the talents hang together? Or do they contradict each other? Like herk's complaint about the current idea for arms... in order to use everything... you need to be in battle stance to take advantage of execute. Which completely screws pvp arms, since all the anti fear crap and burst is in fury.

Cept for the new bladestorm, which is so dysfunctional it aughta be a Lohan.

Which is why I like what's happening with Mages. True... they completely and utterly screwed arcane blast. Arcane got gutted lika Bantha in harshest winter. But well... fire is gonna be great fun in BG's. And... not half bad fer arena. At least until people start stackin 450 resil again. And frost got more of what makes frost fun. Control and damage. And even arcane might not be so bad...

What is a mage after all but ranged version of a rogue? Stick and move... stick and move. Moar instacast spells... moar control... can only help mages in pvp whatever spec. Even arcane is justa unnerf to arcane blast from bein an awesome raidin spec.

As fer hunters... I REALLY like the top BM talent. Look, people. There are those that play the game for reasons other than pvp or pve. Anda lotta of these play hunters. Finally... a talent for them. "Exotic" pets issa great idea. The worst thing blizz ever did was standardize all pets... I remember huntin uniques for their extra abilities... shadow damage, extra resists, uber attack speed, etc. It doesn't hurt the game to have people who live for the easter eggs. Since blizzard wont go back to unique pets... this issa nice bone to throw us.

Now if only critters were their own exotic family, and we could wtfpwn n00bs with squirrels and rabbits.

For 70 level talent builds... I kinda wanna see what I can do with a devilsaur 51/10 build. Orcs get 5% moar pet damage. I think I could really... abuse this with the right ferocity pet.

Survival looks interesting as well. There is simply so damn much +crit talents in that tree that a 0/11/50 build would really rock. Instant aimed shot on something inna frost trap? Oh lord.

However... I have to agree with those that think explosive shot and chimera shots are in the wrong damn trees. Explosive shot adds nothing to the talents already in survival. How can you have imp volley and explosive shots mutually exclusive? I mean, really... is the idea of an aoe hunter that unbalanced? Meanwhile both imp stings and chimera should both be moved to surv.

And then there's the scatter shot factor. Without that...MM is dead in pvp. Period. No moar hunters on drain teams. You wont be able to keep them alive. Readiness? You gotta be kiddin me. All the damn trap skills are in the other damn tree...

Again, my theme. Talents that reinforce each other should be available to a single build. What are we gonna see? BRK hit the nail on the head. 50/21 BM builds with double bestial wrath. (which will get nerfed the same way prep/ar rogue builds got nerfed... BLIZZARD NEVER LEARNS). This build will dominate Hunter dps builds fer quite some time.

And survival builds with MM at least to readiness. Double wyvern sting, scatter shot, traps... harder to kill than freddy kruger, and so damn much crit frost mages will look upon our works and despair...

And witha nerf to aspect of the viper... Surv will work very very well with certain healing builds. So.. two decent pvp/pve builds... and MM becomes to hunters what arcane has been to mages all this time. Spare freaking parts.

Last.. shammies.

Enhance got... doggies. Maelstrom weapon keeps gettin nerfed cuz... well lets face it. The only thing you can do to enhance enhance (as it were) is integrate physical damage more evenly with spell damage. The problem... enhance shammies already have burst damage that makes mages green with envy. Give them auto crit insta cast lava bursts... and you gotta nother ret pally sized balance problem.

So what does enhance get? Freaking toys. Puppies. A change to earthbind totem that acts like a band-aid to shammy mobility issues. Kinda like givin a fool a helmet and sendin them up against someone wieldin .45 colt.

"Pray for the head shot!"

What does elemental get? Not a goddamn thing. A get outta rogue stunlock free card (only usable if you aint stunned.) Less damage. Early reports of elemental dps in raids are... discouraging at best.

This leave resto. And it looks, to me, like resto won the anti-nerf lottery. And insta cast heal witha hot element? C'mon. A buff to earth shield? No.. doan lead me on... an AI heal effect offa heal crit?

I mean... look. Healing in wow is disfunctional. The mechanics make no godddam sense. A healing crit is either useless over healing, orra sign that the tank is overgeared. Improved healing way is one of the most idiotic talents in the game... if it lasted like, 30 seconds, it might be worthwhile. As it is... well, this would take a longer discussion. It simply is useful so few times...

Now blizzard is gettin orginal. Remember... due to imp chain heal... past a certain +heal level, its actually more mana efficient to use chain heal on a tank than to use healing wave. And if there's more than one target... well, massive no brainer. And past a certain +heal... you an idiot to use healing wave instead of lesser healing wave onna non tank.

So what do we have now? A talent that makes lesser healing wave and chain heal even moar useful, and healing wave even moar useless. A heal crit gives a 40% heal to the person in raid who most needs it. I mean really.. I crit my healing wave for 7.5k. This would make it a 10.5 heal. Absolutely wasted.

What does this benefit? Rapid cast heals (moar crits, moar even bonus healin distributed...) Chain healz (three shots atta crit).. and remember the bonus riptide gives to chain heal.

What gets left out? Healing wave.

Heal spell rotation? Keep earth shield up. Riptide for the hot. Lesser heal, lesser heal... chain heal as riptide's hot expires for the bonus. Rinse, wash, repeat. Should keep up a main tank, and splash enough bonus healz around (as well as chain heals) to keep everyone up. Even if they stand on the goddamn burning earth like absolute idiots.

And for pvp? Cmon. An insta cast heal/hot. Earth shield with 20% moar healin and extra charges. "Ghost heals" when you crit, so you get 40% moar healz on the rapid healz that doan get interrupted. Resto shammies are the new resto druids. Cept we can do *real* damage. I expect a biker gang with nerf bats to pull up outside any moment.

Fer pvp... stack crit lika fool, and rely on totems and water shield to keep your mana up.

Fer pve... you still gonna need crit lika pally... but moar +mp5. Possibly swap out +spell power to balance crit and mp5.

Anyway... that's my thoughts so far... Ima still stackin herbage fer the great inscription run. (At this point, ima just gonna sell a ton of it. Runnin outta space now tho...) Still grindin honor on Unbound. (I'll start playin the mage again after the xpansion hits...)

Still tormentin Melvin. He still thinks hunters are gonna get to have two pets out. I've been doin the double devilsaur thing on him. (That so sounds like the ultimate in kink. "Double devilsaur.") Told him that his enchanter will finally be able to enchant his alt's gear (via new inscription scrolls...)

His question... "Will my enchanter have to have the inscription skill as well?"

I mean... its not a bad question. Except... who the hell thinks like this?

Just watching you without me.

So, the response to megs...

Why did it take so long? Well... I was kinda tryin to figure out what flower megs would be, if megs was a flower.

The the answer hit me... itsa so simple.

Nightshade. Intoxicating, produces madness, deadly. A far more capable and lethal cousin of Solanum lycopersicum.

So... here's why we disagree on flag strategy in EotS.

Plz realize... she does premades. I don't. So when she says things like "winning WSG is about controlling the middle of the field." She thinks puttin people in the middle of the field will control it. I think of 6 people seein a prot warrior and thinking, "Hey, this guy can't hurt me, free kill! A lot less fustratin than chasin that damn druid..."

The problem is one of strategic initiative. If you have the flag, you got the initiative. Both is EotS and WSG. THEY have to respond to YOU. This is mitigated if the other side is ahead by enough. Then they can just turtle up in two bases and wait it out. Or sometimes just one.

But if you got the flag, and the score is close... you determine the path of the game. Hold on to the flag, ignore middle, and go for that third base. They outta mid? Coordinate the team to rush mid as you cap. You don't need the mid if you have the flag. THEY, on the other hand, have to keep an eye on it to avoid you gettin cheap points.

And if you get within 40 points of lead? You can just turtle up with the flag, and cap it at last minute for the win. The only organization you need to worry about is makin sure you got enough to defend their inevitable zerg.

Now... this is not to say that an early zerg of the other side's towers issa bad idea. If you can keep them from cappin one of them for a minute or two, you get a nice little point advantage, flag be damned.

But in the grand scheme of things... you have to keep it simple. The average PUG player couldn't spell zerg if you spotted him the z and the "ERG!" They'll hang back, waitin for someone else to go first. They'll watch a flag get picked up, rather than do a suicide to win a few more seconds.

And here's why I wrote the original post. I saw a group of horde in EotS run PAST the flag, at mid, to fight on the middle of the road on the other side. Why were they fightin on the road? Cuz the alliance attacked them there... and you can't just run past an alliance to get to a tower, oh no... and why did they ignore the flag? Cuz people like meg, who otherwise know what they're doin, tend to tell them to ignore the flag. Every goddamn game... I would swear to god that it was alliance propaganda designed to make horde throw the game, cept I see it too many times on alliance side.

The trick is not in winning the game with a good team, megs, dearest.

The trick is winning the game with the complete and utter idiots blizzard stuck you with. And tellin em the flag is useless, just go for the towers... doesn't help. Specially when you have to tell them, again... "the towers... not the road... no, not that road either... no, not the graveyard, the towers. THE TOWERS! WTF IS UP WITH YOU NOOBS FER THE LVOE OF GOG$%#%"

Renoobed has left the game.

Oh, latest Melvin news. I told melvin that honor is bein reset. I haven't told him that this was reversed. And I won't. But I will tell him that arena season is ending in two weeks. And let him make whatever conclusions about arena points that he can.

He's been braggin about his lock too much for my comfort.