Random Question Thread

[brisk]

Is there anyway to make the 2 Spider Kingdom dungeons a little more...bearable? Just did both of them last night healing and I deemed them the worst yet. Lots of Adds + Poison (well Abolish poision makes that easy). Maybe I'm grouping with crappy players.

[Cephius]

Is there anyway to make the 2 Spider Kingdom dungeons a little more...bearable? Just did both of them last night healing and I deemed them the worst yet. Lots of Adds + Poison (well Abolish poision makes that easy). Maybe I'm grouping with crappy players.

You just need a team who understands what to look for. In AN, during the first gauntlet, kill or crowd control the Skirmishers ASAP as they will charge whoever is furthest away from them (usually the healer) so either kill fast, or have someone capable of taking a few shots standing behind the healer. After that first gauntlet, the rest of the instance is pretty simple, there's like no trash. The last boss can be tricky, just avoid the spikes that he shoots up, and have your tank run THROUGH pound when he starts casting it to avoid all damage.

For old kingdom, make sure your group prioritizes the spell casting spiders, as they do some shadow spell that can one-shot any player. For the first boss, tank him at the door so the MT can get hate on everything. Prioritize guardians when they spawn. Cake after that.

[Shuemue]

lol, well to you, I say I've only been an 80 mage for a week. I was just sharing some general 'new 80' shit that I distilled down from my recent experience.

The power of FFB is that it can take advantage from fire and frost tree damage bonuses for huge damage on criticals. From elitist jerks' "The Frostfire Bolt Thread":Frostfire bolt with ignite + burnout + ice shards + CSD: Critical damage bonus 330.75%
CSD is the Chaotic Skyflare Diamond

I levelled entirely as a frost mage til 80, with Torment the Week from arcane after a mid-70s respec (looked about like this at 75.) I loved my multiple layers of security blankets (elemental, ice barrier, rediculous snares). If Fireball is working well for your playstyle now, probably stick with it. Supposedly Fireball/arcane is one of the top DPS specs anyway, just very mana hungry.

edit: I have switched to a pretty typical FFB spec now for more raid/instance damage. It plays quite a bit different than my frost spec did. Here's my armory

Thanks, I'll take a browse through that stuff when I get home later. And yeah, I'm fairly happy with my damage solo, I kill quickly and like the pretty colours. Frost never looked fun, even though I know I'd level faster. I'm also finding dragon's breath and blast wave handy in random PvP encounters

[EternityEnd]

Shuemue, if you're only 75, you'll want to go Frost. If not for soloing, it's the best for normal instances(overall data-- trash etc-- will net you well over 2k DPS.) I can recommend you a spec if you want, but I'm about to head to class.

Once you hit 80, the best spec just starting out is 57/3/11. FFB isn't efficient until higher gear levels(30%+ Crit without Molten Armor,) and is, even then, currently outclassed by Arcane and Fire. Again, I can give you an exact 57/3/11 build when I get back from class.

[aurik]

First off, how much MP is considerered "Decent" when healing for heroics as a druid? Right now I sit on 14.5k after Mark of the Wild, 2 purps and a few blues here and there. From my understanding it's not as necessary as other healers since we have a few MP management tools and hots.

I sit at about 17k self-buffed on my druid. Once you get 15k+, a more important stat for heroics will be your mana recovery, because you won't want to stop and drink after every pull.

What should I be looking for in an order of priority? Currently my priority is Spellpower>int/spirit>mp/5>nothing else as I don't know what I should be looking for.

For you, I'd go with the following:

SP > spirit > int > haste > mp5 > crit

Basically, int spirit and mp5 all eventually impact your long term mana sustainability. Spirit gives you mana regen (as well as a bit of SP). Int gives you a bigger initial mana pool--this is particularly relevant with Replenishment which works off of mana pool size. Due to talents, druids will currently always get more out of Spirit than mp5. Leave the mp5 gear for shamans and paladins.

As 3.1 currently looks, int will be stronger than spirit if you have replenishment. Without replenishment, the 3 sustainability stats will have about the same balance, particularly for druids who spend most of their time inside the FSR. Since in 5-mans you will often NOT have replenishment, I'd prioritize spirit over int once you get to 15k mana or so. With replenishment, they're about equal, with int giving a touch more mana on short fights and spirit giving some SP.

SP, haste, and crit all eventually impact your healing throughput. Spellpower is currently king of the hill: fatter hot ticks means less hots are needed, and less supplemental direct heals needed. owever, getting haste will make your life a lot easier, as most of your GCD are going to be consumed by instant HoT spells. With GotEM, you hit the GCD minimum of 1 second at 16.5% haste with 3/3 Celestial focus -- 32.79 haste rating per 1%. This is the "soft cap" for druids. Keep in mind things like Wrath of Air totem, and Imp Moonkin Aura / Swift Ret Aura add spell haste as well. For raiding in the long term, you will want less than 16.5% haste so that these buffs don't take you far over the soft cap.

All tree soft haste caps (bold number is "as of 3.0.8"): Resto (PvE) Healing Discussion - Page 11 - Elitist Jerks

Crit is basically the stat you get when you don't get haste on an item. At some point when gearing you'll basically realize you have way too much haste for a properly constructed raid. This is when you can start picking up crit pieces instead of haste.

Anything with Hit Rating is a total waste of itemization points for a tree druid. Avoid it if at all possible.

How much mp/5 is considered decent for going up to heroics?

Try to get 600+ mp5 outside of combat as a starting point.

* Bonus Damage:1138
* Bonus Healing: 1138
* Hit Rating: 102
* Crit Chance: 6.1%
* Haste Rating: 135
* Mana Regen: 388

The World of Warcraft Armory

Your SP is a bit low for heroics. Target 1300 or so in tree-form. Not sure if these stats are self-buffed or not--being in tree form with MotW will give you a bunch of additional spirit, which means more mana regen and bonus healing.

By the time you start Naxx you want to be pushing 1500 SP self-buffed (tree+motw). With a SP flask, you will be fine for 10- and 25-man raiding. For Ulduar, the target will probably be 1900-2000 SP self-buffed.

Hit rating is a complete waste here unless you can't avoid it.


Armory Lite - The WoW Armory Alternative: Superwafik of Doomhammer

Regarding your gear, many pieces of it are 187 blues, that's solid. There's a few questionable choices: namely, the pieces with hit rating (cape, bracers, staff). In addition, 1H weapon + offhand is generally a stronger combo for trees.

I notice none of your stuff is enchanted. You might consider putting enchants on your better pieces. In particular, pop a 50 SP / 20 spirit spellthread on those purp legs. They're really good and should last you a long time, totally worth the extra investment.

For enchanting, you should be using:
Head - Wyrmrest enchant
Shoulders - Hodir enchant
Body - +8 stats (or +10, but its super expensive) or +mp5
Wrist - +23 or +30 sp
Hands - +28 sp
Waist - Eternal Belt Buckle for extra socket
Legs - 50SP/20Spi
Feet - a movement speed enchant or +18 spirit

Your first order of business in heroics should probably be to get to Revered Wyrmrest reputation. At that level, you get the head enchant (30SP/8 mp5) and you get access to the Gavel of Brewing Storm, which is one of the best 200 blues for Trees, and Ancestral Sinew Wristguards, which are the best blue 200 for tree.

I would also target this gear to start:

Mace of Unrequited Love -- Nexus
Helm of Anomolous -- Nexus
Necromancer's Amulet -- Culling
Runecaster's Mantle -- Purchased off the AH or trash drop in UK
Reanimator's Cloak -- Purchased off the AH or trash drop in DTK
Robes of Crackling Flame -- Kirin Tor Exalted
Ymirjar Physician's Robe -- Purchased off AH or trash drop in UP
Ancestral Sinew Wristguards -- Wyrmrest Revered
Plague-Infected Bracers -- Culling
Gloves of Glistening Runes -- Nexus
Spectral Seal of the Prophet -- DTK
Signet of Hopeful Light -- Argent Crusade Exalted

You can see there are a lot of good drops from Nexus--plus it's a very easy heroic, particularly for Tree because we counter Keristrasza's mechanics easily. So I would prioritize that instance.

If you feel I've made a bad talent choice, please explain why it is bad. On the topic of talents - I am thinking of redoing them (obviously) and want to include the one that gives me a spirit boost as I find my spirit abysmal, however I hear I shouldn't be doing anything regarding spirit as they're changing how it works as mp/5 soon? Please explain :D

Talents...I am currently moonkin or I'd link my spec, because it's pretty much tuned for running heroics.

Here's what I run with:

IMoTW 2/2
Nature's Focus 3/3
Furor 0/5
-- furor is only useful if you transform into a feral form.

Naturalist 0/5
Subtlety 2/5
Natural Shapeshifter 3/3
-- you should not be casting HT except with Nature's Swiftness, so 0.5s reduction is not useful. The damage increase is only for physical damage; this is a Feral talent.

Intensity 3/3
Omen of Clarity 1/1
Master Shapeshifter 2/2

Imp. Regen 3/3
Tranquil Spirit 1/5
-- TS is only taken because of point requirements

Nature's Swiftness 1/1
Gift of Nature 5/5
Imp. Tranquility 2/2
-- Tranquility is an amazing spell for heroics. These points should be reallocated for raids where it's not nearly as good.

Empowered Touch 0/2
Imp. Regrowth 5/5
-- HT is used so rarely, it's not worth the talent points to buff it

Living Spirit 3/3
Swiftmend 1/1
Natural Perfection 0/3
-- Adding 15% spirit

Empowered Rejuvenation 5/5
Living Seed 1/3
-- Currently, Living Seed is underwhelming because it works off of effective healing--especially in heroics where regrowth crits will often be overheals. Look for this to change in 3.1. However, for now, this is still a good place to put the points from Imp.Tranquility when raiding.

Replenish 0/3
ToL 1/1
IToL 3/3
-- Replenish is garbage atm. May be better in 3.1 when it works off of WG ticks.

GotEM 5/5

WG 1/1

Balance
Genesis 5/5

Moonglow 3/3
Nature's Majesty 2/2
Imp. Moonfire 0/2

Nature's Grace 3/3
Nature's Splendor 1/1
Brambles 1/1
-- NG is a great spell because Regrowth crits so often. NG+Regrowth+glyph practically obsoletes Nourish. This is changing in 3.1, of course. Brambles only taken due to point requirements

Celestial Focus 3/3
-- 3% spell haste. This is a prime candidate for cutting once you are getting close to the haste cap.

[Lordwafik]

Thanks everyone for the replies, I've got a lot of work to do! Didn't realize Healing Touch didn't get much love, I use it here and there, and I can see why boosting it isn't really doing anything as I never use it back to back outside doing the fast cast boost and curebombing myself when I'm being mauled in pvp.

[Shuemue]

Shuemue, if you're only 75, you'll want to go Frost. If not for soloing, it's the best for normal instances(overall data-- trash etc-- will net you well over 2k DPS.) I can recommend you a spec if you want, but I'm about to head to class.

Once you hit 80, the best spec just starting out is 57/3/11. FFB isn't efficient until higher gear levels(30%+ Crit without Molten Armor,) and is, even then, currently outclassed by Arcane and Fire. Again, I can give you an exact 57/3/11 build when I get back from class.

I'd rather not play Frost, I know I'd be more efficient and such, but it's just not for me. I'd probably rather play another class than lose my Pyroblast

[EternityEnd]

I would suggest trying Arcane, then(57/3/11.) It's perfectly viable for soloing as long as you're good at mana management.

Here is my spec: WorldofWarcraft.com -> Info -> Classes -> Mage -> Talent Calculator

Single-target DPS rotation is: Arcane Blast > Arcane Blast > Arcane Blast > Arcane Barrage(OR, if Missile Barrage procs, replace Arcane Barrage with Arcane Missiles.)

AoE rotation is typically: PoM Flamestrike -> IV Blizzard (Until dead. Only use Flamestrike with PoM.)

[brisk]

Haha same boat as Wafik. I use Healing Touch every now and then. Wish dual specs are out now because my Balanced spec seems kinda NQ when healing.

[Elesirdur]

Is there any way to do something like DAT swapping in FFXI to make in-game models appear different on your client than on the server? I ask because I just picked up the Valorous Dreadnought Shoulderplates and though I do love the stats, I absolutely hate the model - I think it looks ridiculous on a Human. Perhaps something like that Wardrobe plugin for FFXI.

I sort of recall that Blizz doesn't allow this kind of mod for some reason, but I can't think of anything specific right now.

[Kaelas]

Iirc they killed that before BC release. I tried finding stuff on it a while ago but everyone says it's impossible to do/you will get banned.

[fantasticdan]

You could definitely do it in BC, but it is bannable.

RMT model changing the zones themselves to mine/herb underground has been rampant since wotlk release.

[Ramor]

It's because the hitboxes and pathing collisions are actually handled clientside (as far as I know) so changing models, as stated above, can drastically change what your character can actually do as far as movement and glitches and things, and so blizzard doesn't allow it

[Correction]

Why you melee raid in p2 malygos? You don't belong there! You are a p2 malygos. You belong in the air!

Spoiler: show

http://i42.tinypic.com/2nk8itg.jpg

[fantasticdan]

That's caused by aoe taunts like challenging shout hitting malygos.

[Correction]

Man that's gay. We were scouring combat logs to see what triggered it and found no obvious clues.

[SamanosukeShiva]

wow... just realized how much exotic pets suck balls

parsed lv74 devilsaur vs lv74 raptor, same spec. raptor win by a good 120 DPS... wtf

[Boyiee]

wow... just realized how much exotic pets suck balls

parsed lv74 devilsaur vs lv74 raptor, same spec. raptor win by a good 120 DPS... wtf

Are you sure?

Last I saw Devilsaur was amazing for leveling. I thought raptor was only good as surv spec? My hunter is only 61 so idk much but thats what I remember pre-surv change.

[Guitarman]

I'm not a hunter, but i would say gorilla is the best for leveling, i saw 2 different hunters using gorillas to aoe chain-kill the vyrkul in storm peaks for relics. They'd aoe stun and smash and shrug off like 6 at once with very little damage taken. Was impressive.

At least in 3.1 you guys can switch pets on the fly, depending on your situation.

[SamanosukeShiva]

yup gorilla is definetly best for lvling, i use raptor for instances

because the tank always bitches when my pet get agg from a critted thunderstomp