Thursday, October 30, 2008

WoW Update - 30 Oct 2008; Capping the Weekend

On Monday after our Kara-ZA clean up I found myself with Calimdan (Feral Druid) and Rizal (Damasso's Ret Pally) taking on Heroic Underbog. We three-manned Hungarfen and called it as heroic reset was approaching.

Tuesday night was server maintenance so no WoW for any of us.

Then last night, Wednesday, we put together a 5-man group (Malago, Amihan, Froufrou, Rizal and Rothgarth) and marched into Heroic Magister's Terrace.

While clearing to the first boss Rizal inadvertently pulled him, locking out everyone not in melee range. Malago, Rizal and I found ourselves alone in a room with a heroic boss, and damned if we weren't going to give up without a fight. So Rizal switched to the occasional heal and I poured on the damage. When the smoke cleared we found ourselves a Badge of Justice richer and very, very shocked at how quickly he went down.

On the way to the second boss Romola logged in while on holiday in Japan, bringing our count to six. So we left Magister's Terrace (first downing the second boss, we shouldn't waste a Badge of Justice, after all) and marched into Karazhan. We 6-manned Attumen and the world event boss (Rizal picked up the Arcanite Ripper this time). As we were clearing to Moroes, we picked up Hotohori, who had just logged into the game. Then as we were clearing to Maiden, we picked up Grinble.

We 8-manned Maiden, Opera and Nightbane before calling it a night.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

WoW Update - 28 Oct 2008, The Weekend Concludes

With Saturday's raid a blight in our consciousness, we reassembled the next day to take on Tempest Keep. Last week we downed 3/4 bosses, stopping only at Kael'thas thanks to the server crashing on us. This week we intended to finish the job.

Unfortunately, a third of the raid never showed up, and we were forced to wait for six more raiders to log in before we started cleaning up trash. Tempest Keep trash pulls are notoriously hard, and we wiped twice or thrice before reaching Al'ar.

After a few wipes on Al'ar, I opted for a new strategy for myself: I would be up on the platforms with the melee DPS, providing heals and judgments as needed.

It seemed to work well enough that we would reach Phase 2 without a hitch. I learned to watch Al'ar instead of my boss timer - the boss timer would warn me too late to jump off the platforms and I would die to Flame Quills. I learned to recognize the difference between Al'ar setting up for Flame Quill and Al'ar just moving to another platform.

Phase 2, however, was an unmitigated disaster. We wiped so often that we wound up having to re-clear Al'ar, and then we wiped some more.

We called the raid after around 7-8 wipes, having downed not one boss in Tempest Keep. Everyone was unhappy.

So when we put out a call at 1 pm for a Karazhan raid (originally a ZA raid, but we lacked the numbers), there were raiders willing to come kick ass with us.

By this point Avierra had specced Protection to offtank Karazhan (Malago was on and main-tanking). We had three healers and a lot of good DPS. We blew through Kara like it was the Deadmines, downing even the new quest boss (Avierra looted the Arcanite Ripper). I switched to Froufrou for Prince and Netherspite, finally winning a helm token for a Netherblade Facemask.

At the end of the run I was grinning like a madman. We'd spent three and a half hours clearing Kara - more than I'd like, but we had a couple of newbies and we had to go over strats carefully - but the payoff was very, very nice: 19 badges for Avierra and 5 for Froufrou.

I logged out to catch up on some sleep and wasn't on again till almost 9 pm. I expected to farm gold and log out early, as is my habit on Sundays. Instead I got an invite for Zul'Aman. Aranash, it seemed, was logging in and wanted a ZA group to blitz through the instance.

I was a bit surprised to find that I would be offtanking again - after all, Aran is usually the paladin tank, not me - but I took to it with a great deal of enthusiasm. We blew through the animal bosses quickly, reaching High Lord Malacrass in around an hour. We cleared the first three timers, a first for the Guild. I passed on a Signet of the Last Defender as Malago didn't have it yet, and a Girdle of Stromgarde's Hope that went to Aranash for his healing set.

We cleared Malacrass in one shot and went on to Zul'jin. It took us a couple of tries to get used to the fight, but in the end we downed him - a Guild first, and certainly a first for most of us. I looted a Chestguard of the Warlord to replace my Panzar'thar Breastplate and rolled a lucky 98 for the Blood of Zul'jin, a quest turnin for some gold and 10 Badges of Justice.

At the end of the night I found Avierra with 97 Badges of Justice - within striking distance of the Legplates of the Aldor for my tanking set. I decided to hold off for the time being, aiming my sights instead at the Gavel of Naaru Blessings instead at 150 badges. It would be a great help now for both my tanking and healing set, after all, unlike the legplates which would only be of use in one spec.

I logged out at almost 1 am tired but happy. We'd done good this weekend, and our failure to clear TK and SSC didn't feel so painful now.

WoW Update - 28 Oct 2008, The Weekend Begins

Well, it really was a wild World of Warcraft weekend. With my better half out of town all weekend, I was either out with friends, fast asleep or playing WoW. Quite a few things happened to me online that I'm happy to blog about.

Saturday morning found me up at 8 am and ready to raid by 8:30. I logged on as Avierra and got thrown an invite to Serpentshrine Cavern. Never having been there, I was excited to take down some bosses and see some new content.

I paid 45g to respec Avierra back to Ret/Holy, as we had a number of tanks at that point already. Aranash, our Guild Leader and one of our tankadins, had specced pure holy for this raid. While we were the only healadins on this run, we also had two retribution paladins (Rizal and Grantilis) along for DPS.

We downed Hydross the Unstable fairly quickly with one wipe, due to the adds being mainly unaccounted for. This was a sign of things to come, as over and over again we would have add problems.

The Lurker Below also died pretty easily. I was really unlucky this boss - I died several times by being too slow to jump into the water or Divine Shield. More to learn for next time, I suppose.

I thought we'd try for Leotheras the Blind next, but instead we wound up heading straight to Lady Vashj. Which, of course, was a mistake - we wiped thrice on her before deciding to call it a night.

It wasn't much of a raid night - 3 badges and no new gear for me (which was fine, I'm pretty well geared on Avi anyway). I did, however, get a Sinister Squashling from a Treat Bag, which cheered me no end.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Holy Light crit for 20k??!

I didn't think it was possible, but my Holy Light 11 crit for 20k.

I took a screenshot of it, too.

This is pretty unusual for me - I normally expect Holy Light 11 to critically heal for around 8k. I had been talking in our private channel about how my HLs were coming in for 10-11k criticals when I landed a 20k crit.

Unfortunately, I haven't landed one like this in combat yet. I was checking healing distances when I took this shot.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Rest in Peace, Ephoenix.

The world just got a little bit darker.

Rest well, brave one.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

WoW Update - 22 Oct 2008; A Quick Update

Right now, we're going through a bit of Guild drama. Two people have left the Guild over differences with the officers; one of them I rather liked and am really going to miss raiding with.

That said, I can't say that I'm not enjoying my stay on Bloodhoof. Monday night was a blast as eight of us Filipinos were online together. If only some of the others weren't saved to Karazhan, we could easily have marched in and taken down some bosses. Instead we resorted to farming the Headless Horseman, which was something of a disaster as neither his mount nor the pet dropped. Instead we got the rings, which are nice to have but ultimately not all that great compared to the loot we were really there for.

Jarvisius, Hotohori and Romola have been level 70 for a few weeks now and we're pretty impressed with how quickly they've gotten used to raiding and instance runs. Jarvisius is almost completely epicced out and the other two aren't far behind. We're trying to convince Hotohori to spec her Druid as a tank, but so far she hasn't made up her mind one way or another yet. Her DPS is a bit low as a cat, but that's likely the fault of the spec.

I now have just over 5000 gold on both Avierra and Froufrou - enough to buy Avierra's epic flying skill but not much else. I'm convinced that one day of dailies will suffice to get her both the skill and a gryphon. I'm also considering saving up for the hippogryph, but that's a big investment at 1600 gold.

In the meantime, Sei is stuck at level 40 as I haven't found the time to level her yet. I've stopped leveling her trade skills in the expectation that she'll be dropping them for mining and skinning at level 80, but that's such a distant prospect that I'm not including her in my new content plans at all.

We ran Heroic Slave Pens on Monday night with Avierra tanking - her first chance to try the new Protection talents that came with 3.0.2. Tankadins are doing more damage than ever before, I'm happy to say. Between Consecration, Seal of Righteousness and Hammer of the Righteous, AOE threat generation is a breeze. I almost never lost aggro... the few exceptions being the times that I was feared with cooldowns blown.

Between Prot and Ret/Holy, though, I must say that I'm enjoying Ret/Holy more. There's something about the insane celerity with which I can down mobs that fills my heart with joy. After all, I didn't become a plate-wearing, hammer-wielding avatar of the Light because I wanted to spam Flash of Light and Cleanse. Healing's fun, especially in raids against mobs four times my size and thirsting for my tank's blood, but most of the time I just want to kick ass without having to cast Divine Shield or Lay on Hands. And I think many of us feel the same.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Avierra's 3.0.2 Build - Pally Mana Battery

Last weekend rocked. Big time. Over the course of two days, GoV cleared Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon's Lair, and most of Tempest Keep. As a matter of fact, we probably would have cleared TK had the server not hung as we were assembling before Kael'thas.
I was excited to try out Avierra's new build, which was recommended for healers over a straight-up Holy build. I somewhat regret not being able to try out the new Beacon of Light spell, but so far I'm having lots of fun with this build.
Take note that I'm mostly geared to boost spellpower and crit (formerly +healing and +spellcrit). I don't really have any haste items on Avierra, which I somewhat regret.

RETRIBUTION (whut?!!) - 34 points
Benediction - 5 points. I expect to judge a lot, usually whenever it's up.

Improved Judgements - 2 points. Reducing the cooldown on Judgements allows me to judge more frequently, regenerating more mana for myself and the rest of my raid.

Heart of the Crusader - 3 points. More raid utility! Works very well with DPS whose specs proc off criticals.

Improved Blessing of Might - 2 points. And even more raid utility. This build really only has two blessings, so I thought I might as well talent both of them.

Vindication - 2 points. You can't raid all the time, and this talent helps in farming. Every so often you'll find a miniboss who'll be vulnerable to this.

Conviction - 5 points. A straight-up 5% critical chance increase to all spells makes a great deal of sense, especially to a crit-hungry Holy healing build.

Pursuit of Justice - 2 points. I originally wanted to leave this talent out, but I needed a 2-point sink. I've since learned to appreciate it, as I often have to run into melee range to judge a boss before running back to the ranged DPS and healers.

Sanctified Seals - 3 points. I'm still unsure whether or not this talent affects healing spells, but I'm hopeful that it does.

Sanctified Retribution - 1 point. More raid utility here, although I've mostly used it to farm.

Vengeance - 3 points. I thought I'd need this for farming, but it turns out that I'm using this in raids as well. My spell cycle now includes Hammer of Wrath, which can critically hit and proc Vengeance.

Improved Retribution Aura - 2 points. Retribution Aura is my main farming aura, and I really enjoy grabbing up to 5 mobs and grinding them down with spellpower-boosted Consecration.

Judgements of the Wise - 3 points. Replenishment is a great buff and much appreciated by any caster. Having a Judgement give back almost a thousand points of mana is also an experience worth having.

Repentance - 1 point. I originally did not put points into this talent, until I saw two of our ret paladins CC loose mobs with it. I think it's tremendously overpowered for a 1-point talent and therefore well worth the extra point in Retribution.

HOLY - 28 points
Spiritual Focus - 5 points. Much more useful for farming than for raiding, but certainly more desirable for a healer than the other Tier 1 Holy talent, Seals of the Pure.

Divine Intellect - 5 points. A bigger mana pool and more spellpower make this a no-brainer for any caster.

Healing Light - 3 points. Again, a no-brainer for a healer, and well worth the extra talent points at Tier 2.

Illumination - 5 points. This is my main mana-regen strategy: cast critical heals and get mana back, judging as needed to get even more mana back. Illumination is key to half of this strategy.

Aura Mastery - 1 point. It was a toss-up between this and Improved Lay on Hands, and I went with this for more raid utility. I feel justified in keeping my point here as I have not yet had a need to cast Lay on Hands. 20 minutes isn't so bad, considering what the cooldown used to be.

Improved Blessing of Wisdom - 2 points. I love putting points into this talent. More mana back is better.

Divine Favor - 1 point. It's cheap and well worth the point investment. Also, it's a prerequisite for Holy Shock, which I intend to get once I'm able to spec up to it again.

Sanctified Light - 3 points. Every so often I find myself in a situation where I need to spam Holy Light instead of Flash of Light.

Holy Power - 2 points. I wish I had more talent points to put into this, and certainly as I level up in Wrath of the Lich King this talent will be my first priority.

RESULTS:
The lowest I've gone in a boss fight is 54% mana - and the one time I let a tank die, it was because I hadn't figured out a judgment strategy. That was the first boss fight I'd been in since I'd respecced to this build.
The trick is to find a playstyle which will let me judge. I typically put up Seal of Wisdom at the start of the fight, even when I know I won't be coming into melee range to strike the boss. Then, in between Flash of Light spam, I run in, throw a judgment, then run back to my place with the other healers.
Checking our stats via Recount, I typically find myself at the top of the healing meters (and manaregen meters). Unfortunately, I also find myself at the top of the overhealing meters. That's the way it is, I guess... I'm willing to let it slide as I only really have two heals available to me, and downranking my spells actually increases their mana cost. I've had Holy Lights crit for 11k (and the resulting heals from Glyph of Holy Light can also crit, which is very nice). My Flash of Light typically heals for around 1.7k and crits for 2.4k.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

WoW Update - 16 Oct 2008: 3.0 Hits

Bloodhoof was finally up by the time I got home and logged in. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my Schematic: Mana Potion Injector had sold on the Auction House, and that meant I was 600 more gold closer to my objective of an epic flyer for Avierra.

Avierra specced Retribution until Judgements of the Wise and Holy all the way after that. I put 2 points into Pursuit of Justice instead of Deflection as I'd earlier intended. I was dismayed that I wouldn't have Holy Shock any longer, but I hoped that all the points I put into Retribution would make up for the loss of my staple direct damage spell.

I spent another twenty minutes adjusting my actionbars. The new Judgment and Hand system kind of confused me for a few minutes. I was also a bit shocked to realize that I now had only 2 Blessings left to me - Might and Wisdom - after the respec. Light was gone, Kings was an unreasonable use of my talent points, and Salvation, Freedom and Sacrifice were now Hand spells. I headed into the Auction House and picked up a Glyph of Holy Light and a Glyph of Divinity, as per Siha's recommendation. Thus armed I headed to the Isle of Quel'danas.

The new spec is less prone to burst damage than the old spec. With Consecration, Retribution Aura, and the occasional Seal of Righteousness crit (and a Judgment damage pop) most mobs died pretty quickly. I didn't miss Holy Shock one bit, although I took a little bit more damage than usual thanks to the loss of Redoubt and Anticipation. And with Judgments of the Wise, Improved Blessing of Wisdom and the occasional Judgment of Wisdom I had no trouble whatsoever with mana.

The only thing I haven't been able to do is incorporate the new Avenging Wrath into my spell cycle, but no doubt I'll have that in hand by this weekend.

Froufrou's respec was much more straightforward. I put 2 points in Blade Twisting instead of into increased dodge as Blade Twisting gave me an additional 10% damage to my Sinister Strikes. Savage Combat was a passive proc and the only new ability I would need to integrate into my spell cycle was Killing Spree.

I picked up a Glyph of Sinister Strike and a Glyph of Slice and Dice from the Auction House and proceeded to do dailies. Killing Spree was a nice addition to Frou's already potent arsenal; my only complaint about it is that she doesn't really finish off all five strikes as whatever she hits usually dies by the third or fourth attack.

I'm also considering dropping Unfair Advantage as I haven't really seen it proc. That may just be a function of my scrolling text and the lack of my recording mods - I haven't updated Grim Reaper or Recount yet, after all. I'm keeping it on for now.

I tried to log into Sei to try out her new talents but for some reason she couldn't get on. It turns out that the server had somehow not loaded the entire continent of Kalimdor (Sei was in Theramore) and was booting anyone who tried to log in there. If you were unlucky all your characters were somewhere on the continent and all you were getting were "World server is down" messages.

The verdict - World of Warcraft 3.0 brings a much-needed breath of fresh air to what was becoming a stale, monotonous game. The new content is very much welcome, as is the opportunity to reconnect with one's characters on a new level. I'm looking forward to hitting Northrend with both my 70's when the expansion pack comes out - in the meantime, there're all sorts of Achievements I want for my toons.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

WoW Update - 14 Oct 2008: Preparing for 3.0

It's Tuesday night, which normally means server maintenance. With so many WoW players in the office, we're all updated on what's happening to the server - and yes, tonight there is indeed a twelve-hour maintenance scheduled while we anxiously await Patch 3.0.

I know it's long past time that I did a bit of talent work on the site - the last being, perhaps, Avierra's long-drawn-out flirtation with Protection spec. But unfortunately, with Wrath of the Lich King on the near horizon, I'm forced to think about how I'll spec to level.

Here's what I'm considering:

Avierra: from her straight up Holy/Prot build (link this later) will go Ret/Holy for Judgments of the Wise. I'm tempted to go full Holy at first as I won't have the benefit of Holy Shock until I hit my mid-70s, but I'm not going to have JotW if I do that.

I'm really going to miss Divine Illumination, though. I think this spec will definitely push my healing down, although my raid utility is going to increase.

Froufrou: 15/41/5 Combat will give way to... 5/51/5 Combat. I still miss the Subtlety talents I spec in when I play PvP, but I had to sacrifice some things to get the new talents in Combat. I somewhat regret maintaining my Dagger build for Burning Crusade - I blame my own ignorance for that. I understand that Lich King will be kinder on Dagger rogues, though.

I still intend to level Sei to max level, of course. I'm not looking at getting her out of Beast Mastery spec as I expect her to be my dedicated farmer. I've stopped levelling her tradeskills. When she hits 80 I expect to drop Mining on Avierra and Skinning on Froufrou so that I can fix my tradeskills like this:

Avierra - Engineering / Jewelcrafting
Froufrou - Leatherworking / Enchanting
Sei - Mining / Skinning

I'm flirting with the idea of getting Inscription for Frou instead of Enchanting but herbs are going to be expensive.

When I get home from work, I'll be downloading mods to replace the ones that are going to break in the new patch. I'm psyched about farming in 3.0 - I expect Avierra to do more damage when her healing gear consolidates to +spellpower. Maybe I should wake up early to start patching my client...