Random Question Thread

[Correction]

My mage wasn't exactly in epics when I started her 70-80 grind either. Fireballs did 1.9k non-crit which meant a lot of casts per exp mob. Drinking is mandatory at those gear levels.

Maybe frost would have been more mana efficient but I didn't think to respec at the time.

[EternityEnd]

Mine wasn't either. 1-80 after WotLK hit. Fire 10-45, Frost 45-80. Had to drink maybe a handful of times after 25. With 3 charge gems and Evocation, you really have to try to go OOM. I'm not sure why on earth you leveled Fire 70-80.

[Slott]

As a druid I've been playing feral (cat) for the majority of the time i've been playing wow (let's say 2 months). Since druid tanks seemed great on 3d sartharion, I put together a tanking set for my own use and for sartharion. Results were pretty great, and I was able to solo a lot of things (ZG mount bosses, Magister's terrace on heroic, Anzu, I could tank heroics easily etc). My problem however is in a raid setting... I just can't seem to build threat at a very high pace (typically 3k Threat per second) and if the mob is taunt immune and I'm not the one getting hit...i'm extremely rage starved which leads me to never pulling hate.

I'm currently logged out in my cat gear/spec but I'll try to remember what I'm wearing to post. The gear I use for it is typically the gear that's gotten replaced for my cat, or offspec shit nobody really wanted.

(Incase I do log out in tank gear, The World of Warcraft Armory is my armory)

I'm typically spamming maul, mangle, and when mangle is on cooldown, lacerate. So it's typically like Mangle + Maul > Lacerate + maul > Mangle + maul > Lacerate + maul.

Gear I'm using:
Head: Helm of vast legions (10 man sapph gemmed with 16 agi and the +2% armor meta, Stam/def enchant from argent crusade)
Neck: Amulet of Autopsy (Heigan 10 man naxx)
Shoulders: T7.1, 16 agi gem, 30 stam 15 resilience enchant from honor
Body: Polar with 3 24 stam gems and 10 all stats enchant, or t7.1 with a 16 agi gem and 24 stam gem
Hands: Valorous: 16 agi gem, with 20 agi enchant
Legs: Valorous with 16 agi gem, 55 stam 22 agi enchant
Wrist: Advance-tooled leather bands, 90 stamina leatherworking emboss
Boots: Polar, 2X 24 stamina gems with 20 agi enchant
Waist: Polar, 1X 16 agi gem, 1X 8 def 12 stamina gem, 1X 24 stamina gem
Rings: Gatekeeper, Key-stone great ring
Trinkets: Defender's Code, Valor medal of the first war, Essence of Gossamer, Commendation of Kael'Thas,
Weapons: Origin of Nightmares, mongoose enchant
Ranged: Idol of Terror

Depending on the fight, I stack more armor/evasion or more HP as needed, but how can I get my threat up reasonably? :/

[Norellicus]

AP/Crit helps threat in obvious ways, but you're doing everything right...maybe use Swipe every 2nd or 3rd rotation instead of Lacerate, I think they patched it to give a threat bonus of some kind (but you still want Lacerates in there to keep the bleed running for your Maul bonus).

I don't know what good TPS is these days, 2-3k is about what I see in 5-mans (both when I tank and when others are tanking for me)...so idk ;/

Edit: Oh man, no wonder you're rage starved, get some Natural Reaction in that talent spec! Rage on dodge is pro. (granted it won't help you when you aren't getting hit, but getting more during the times that you *are* taking hits is super nice)

I don't much care for Master Shapeshifter. Not enough bang for the talent points imo.

Protector of the Pack is nice for mitigation+threat all in one package.

KotJ is more a cat talent than a bear one too, and Predatory Instincts *only* affects cat, if you weren't aware.

Edit2: Just noticed you play primarily cat, so your choice of talents there makes decent enough sense, sorry I overlooked that I still wouldn't take MS even for a cat build though, just not powerful enough for 5 points.

[Slott]

That's my cat spec. For bear, i change my talents significantly. Master shapeshifter is definitely worth it when pushing your dps. I sit around 50% crit (55% on raids). This is by far the best current pure dps talent spec for cats.

For bear spec, I dont take master shapeshifter. My problem is when im offtanking or not getting hit, I only generate rage by hitting.

[Slott]

WorldofWarcraft.com -> Info -> Classes -> Druid -> Talent Calculator

that's my bear spec.

[Ishido]

For Sartharion (MTing) you're going to want more stam in your gear than what you have listed.

As far as threat goes, it really shouldn't be a problem unless you are rage starved. Maul is our largest threat move and obviously can't be used, or can only be used sparingly if you're sitting at low levels of rage. Using the polar gear is a large threat loss compared to using T7 or other more DPS oriented pieces, and the stam is not necessary for most fights in the game right now. Also barring any changes, AP and crit will both become mitigation stats as well as threat stats come 3.1, making the defensive differences not as significant.

[Slott]

Raid buffed I hit over 50k as bear in my stam gear, but im likely to drop 90 stam for 60 fire resist an maybe some other spots too for 3d sarth.

[Guitarman]

Super random question:

So i have all settings at max, game is completely set at the highest visual settings and i still run a solid 40-60 fps, but mobs/npc etc will not load until im almost on top of them. Is there a slider bar i'm missing somewhere to move how fast those load? It's a pain to get aggro because something hasn't loaded.

[Norellicus]

There is a bar for that, yes...the tooltip for it specifically mentions how far away monsters in the environment load. I don't believe its affected by the global quality slider either, so might check it out.

[Slott]

Phased mobs take longer to load than non-phased mobs too.

[brisk]

Balanced druid here. What stats should I be focusing on? I read that stacking int is not that good.

[Norellicus]

Stacking int is in fact quite good for a balance spec, on account of Dreamstate; int will improve your max mana, your spellcrit, and your regen all at once.

[Ishido]

Dreamstate is actually a pretty bad moonkin talent. It might change based on the upcoming spirit regen changes, but intensity is currently better. I don't focus on moonkin but I have a bit of experience, I believe the stat hierarchy is hit (to cap) > SP > haste > crit > int > spi. Int isn't as bad as it used to be, since things like replenishment are based off of your mana pool, but it's still not very strong.

[Norellicus]

I assumed while leveling, which is an error on my part, but yeah you want to hitcap first and foremost for raiding and such (and don't forget the hit cap is much higher on spells than it is for melee, to the tune of 17% or so iirc, so be careful with that).

[brisk]

What is the cap to hit?

Edit: Nevermind already answered

[Xfaustx]

Im currently dual boxing a druid and paladin, lvling them atm, which of them would make the better tank? and which the better healer? and will either be a good DD while tanking/healing? i want to be able to duo most group quests and BC heroics for mounts

[aurik]

Balanced druid here. What stats should I be focusing on? I read that stacking int is not that good.

Get hitcapped, then stack spellpower. Don't take dreamstate; OOC and intensity are better point-for-point.

Haste is a really good stat if you're not running OOM, otherwise get crit.

[Slott]

Xfaustx:

They're both good, both with their own pros and cons. Druid specializes in HOTs and group healing, while paladins really excel at insane single target healing.

Both can tank extremely well. As a druid myself, I can solo any 5 man BC heroic for mounts. Paladins might be able to, but...not 100% sure. I'll quote a paladin that ran some stuff with me last night. "Paladin healers are made for druid tanks." Not to mention if you dont care about getting mounts for both, and you liek the druid more, the druid can sneak through trash without having to clear stupid amounts of it, and get the run done much faster.

As for dps, a bear spec druid does higher damage than a prot spec paladin, I think. In addition, a bear can swap to cat form (and while not doing as much damage as a pure spec cat, can still push high dps). You'd have to respec the paladin as ret to do that.

[Xfaustx]

Xfaustx:

They're both good, both with their own pros and cons. Druid specializes in HOTs and group healing, while paladins really excel at insane single target healing.

Both can tank extremely well. As a druid myself, I can solo any 5 man BC heroic for mounts. Paladins might be able to, but...not 100% sure. I'll quote a paladin that ran some stuff with me last night. "Paladin healers are made for druid tanks." Not to mention if you dont care about getting mounts for both, and you liek the druid more, the druid can sneak through trash without having to clear stupid amounts of it, and get the run done much faster.

As for dps, a bear spec druid does higher damage than a prot spec paladin, I think. In addition, a bear can swap to cat form (and while not doing as much damage as a pure spec cat, can still push high dps). You'd have to respec the paladin as ret to do that.

thanks for the info, they're only 16 atm but with 3x EXP it'll be quick leveling. you made it pretty clear for me that i should have the druid tank and the pally heal. since i might be using my 80 mage to tag along with the druid for mounts since my mage is my main ill be getting mounts for. prolly shoulda said that. lol