Love, Love, Love this video:
The Craft of War: BLIND from percula on Vimeo.
28.12.08
easiest dps improvement.
The easiest DPS improvement is enchants followed by gems.
Keep all your green item loots as you run around doing your dailies, farming and the like and ask an enchanter in town to Disenchant them for you.
After they do that, Ask them to enchant your gear!
Or, buy up the special enchanting parchments from the AH and have them make a few spares of that as well.
Armor Vellum III
Weapon Vellum III
My advice is to buy the mats for the Vellums and then have an Scribe create them.
Its great to carry spares with you since you actually have a DPS hit if you find an upgrade and don't have it gemmed or enchanted.
Keep all your green item loots as you run around doing your dailies, farming and the like and ask an enchanter in town to Disenchant them for you.
After they do that, Ask them to enchant your gear!
Or, buy up the special enchanting parchments from the AH and have them make a few spares of that as well.
Armor Vellum III
Weapon Vellum III
My advice is to buy the mats for the Vellums and then have an Scribe create them.
Its great to carry spares with you since you actually have a DPS hit if you find an upgrade and don't have it gemmed or enchanted.
what to put in your other hand?!
I have been looking at off hand frills, or 2h staff as a restoration or elemental but there was a comment that shields are best for shamans.
I couldn't figure out why, until I realized that you can enchant shields but not off hand frills, and you only get one enchant for 2H.
Now, that makes more sense since other caster classes can't equip shields.
I couldn't figure out why, until I realized that you can enchant shields but not off hand frills, and you only get one enchant for 2H.
Now, that makes more sense since other caster classes can't equip shields.
instances and you.
As I have been gearing up my enhancement shaman there comes a tipping point where no one wants you, to everyone wants you.
Its a combination of gear/gems/enchants, reliability when running instances, availability, and really knowing your character.
You can find info on gear and the like at EJ.
And reliability just comes from staying until the end of runs. If you are always making yourself available, with consumables, (if need be) and staying until the end, people will add you to their list and when they run stuff will look you up first.
I know that people don't like replacing folks in their group, especially since they have to run out and summon, after they find someone that wants to run a partial instance.
The other thing that comes with that, is knowing how much time you have and knowing how long it takes to do a particular instance. Heroic Occulus comes to mind.
Some of this might sound really obvious but it bears repeating because no one really talks about it.
How often does someone say to you, "thanks for being available, not bring your personal problems to the group, and staying until the end even though you lost all the rolls" ;)
The last thing is for me in particular as a shaman.
We have a wide range of totems and spells and abilities that make us useful in a lot of different fights, its one of the biggest things that I like about being a shaman.
And it all comes down to knowing fights and knowing mobs and trying different things.
Let me give a few examples:
Whenever I see a mob with an ability I the buff area of the unit UI, I find out if I can purge it. If he then starts casting something like a healing spell, Earth Shock it to see if I interrupt it. If its a harmful spell, I through down Grounding totem. If shaman friend doesn't say that it has been absorbed by the grounding totem, then I know not to through it next time.
If the boss is tossing around diseases, fire attacks, frost attacks, poisons and the like and the healer is having a tough time keeping everyone up to 80-100% I through down totems that negate that damage, and that means that everyone can fight longer because the healer isn't out of mana.
Now you might say that you should just DPS them down
If everyone is taking the full amount of damage, then the healer is going to be doing lots of group benefitting heals.
When something crazy happens, the healer might be out of mana from mana inefficient group heals and have no breathing room to bring everyone back up
Or he/she might be focused on the group and not the tank for a second, and he might be close to death.
By giving them the healer breathing room, we can go the distance in the fight.
And as a dps class that has healing spells, when the healer is working on the tank, I might toss a instance chain heal or put the healing totem down for awhile.
Now, that takes a hit in dps meters, but I am ok with that. Even as a great DPSer its nice to take a hit in the meters and say, my benefit is intangible as long as everyone else sees you as a contribution.
A tank's contribution is to tank, as long as no one dies, he is doing his "job"
A healers contribution is to heal, as long as people mostly don't die, he is doing his job.
Pure DPS classes contribution is to go all out on the mobs and kill them as fast as possible. And someone invented dps meters to show the contribution each dpser adds.
Everyone can see the value each brings, but shamans are unique in that they can DPS and heal without changing forms, we bring more than "just" dps. We bring totems, and more fight management tools.
A person that rolls a rogue or dps warrior, that then rolls a shaman is going to try to play it that way, maximizing Attack power and Crit and I don't think that's the intent of shamans, even though everyone wants to pidgin hole us into that role.
Its a combination of gear/gems/enchants, reliability when running instances, availability, and really knowing your character.
You can find info on gear and the like at EJ.
And reliability just comes from staying until the end of runs. If you are always making yourself available, with consumables, (if need be) and staying until the end, people will add you to their list and when they run stuff will look you up first.
I know that people don't like replacing folks in their group, especially since they have to run out and summon, after they find someone that wants to run a partial instance.
The other thing that comes with that, is knowing how much time you have and knowing how long it takes to do a particular instance. Heroic Occulus comes to mind.
Some of this might sound really obvious but it bears repeating because no one really talks about it.
How often does someone say to you, "thanks for being available, not bring your personal problems to the group, and staying until the end even though you lost all the rolls" ;)
The last thing is for me in particular as a shaman.
We have a wide range of totems and spells and abilities that make us useful in a lot of different fights, its one of the biggest things that I like about being a shaman.
And it all comes down to knowing fights and knowing mobs and trying different things.
Let me give a few examples:
Whenever I see a mob with an ability I the buff area of the unit UI, I find out if I can purge it. If he then starts casting something like a healing spell, Earth Shock it to see if I interrupt it. If its a harmful spell, I through down Grounding totem. If shaman friend doesn't say that it has been absorbed by the grounding totem, then I know not to through it next time.
If the boss is tossing around diseases, fire attacks, frost attacks, poisons and the like and the healer is having a tough time keeping everyone up to 80-100% I through down totems that negate that damage, and that means that everyone can fight longer because the healer isn't out of mana.
Now you might say that you should just DPS them down
If everyone is taking the full amount of damage, then the healer is going to be doing lots of group benefitting heals.
When something crazy happens, the healer might be out of mana from mana inefficient group heals and have no breathing room to bring everyone back up
Or he/she might be focused on the group and not the tank for a second, and he might be close to death.
By giving them the healer breathing room, we can go the distance in the fight.
And as a dps class that has healing spells, when the healer is working on the tank, I might toss a instance chain heal or put the healing totem down for awhile.
Now, that takes a hit in dps meters, but I am ok with that. Even as a great DPSer its nice to take a hit in the meters and say, my benefit is intangible as long as everyone else sees you as a contribution.
A tank's contribution is to tank, as long as no one dies, he is doing his "job"
A healers contribution is to heal, as long as people mostly don't die, he is doing his job.
Pure DPS classes contribution is to go all out on the mobs and kill them as fast as possible. And someone invented dps meters to show the contribution each dpser adds.
Everyone can see the value each brings, but shamans are unique in that they can DPS and heal without changing forms, we bring more than "just" dps. We bring totems, and more fight management tools.
A person that rolls a rogue or dps warrior, that then rolls a shaman is going to try to play it that way, maximizing Attack power and Crit and I don't think that's the intent of shamans, even though everyone wants to pidgin hole us into that role.
25.12.08
dual roles
I have been playing on my Shaman more than my Warrior.
The weirdest thing about playing so much is that most of my personality comes through while playing.
When I first came to wow, I rolled an orc warrior on an RP PVE server.
I took it for granted that names were normally RP like, at a later time I was on a non rp server and the non rp names drove me crazy.
I picked up mining and blacksmithing for my warrior, and spent a long time leveling up blacksmithing. I really wanted to make gear for myself and others and so it was nice having blacksmithing. I was broke, all the time. It seemed at the time that there was nothing I could make to sell for a profit and it was worth more to sell the ore/bars than to make gear. I shelved my warrior and rolled a few alliance toons.
After awhile, I felt that I missed the playstyle and feeling of being with my fellow horde members. I then rolled my shaman, and picked up skinning and mining and really enjoyed playing him.
When I got to 70 I was able to purchase an epic flying mount. That was the total opposite feeling of my warrior. I had plenty of money, mats for gear to be made, and really just enjoyed leveling and questing with him. I decided that I would do all the quests in outland and after that respecced him to healing for pvp/pve.
I really enjoyed that as well. Healing in PVP is really relaxing to a certain extent, because I was harder to kill, and the people around me were harder to kill.
So I mention all that because my next statement is hard to explain.
When I play my warrior, I feel selfish. And when I play my shaman, I feel generous. The best example of that is with my shaman, I have heals for others, totems for buffs for others, totems that clear poisons/diseases which help healers. I mine and skin and sell it on the AH so I am always bringing in money. I don't go out of my way to farm, I just do my dailies and skin and mine while running around. The more I play the more I have.
With Wrath, I already have quite a few crafted epics and badges without really even trying. So when we are in heroics, I rarely want the rewards and am happy to pass on gear and what not. I bought frozen orbs off the AH, and then turned around and looted 3 while doing heroics.
My warrior is exactly the opposite experience. I don't have many tools to do different things. Poisons, diseases, stuns, fears and the like affect my DPS/tanking. I need people to heal me, and DPS for me.
I need others to sheep, hex, sap mobs that I mark. I also feel that no one understands warriors, and don't know what I can and can't do. All this builds up and I start getting greedy for drops and loot and money. I love tanking and blacksmithing but the feelings of contentment aren't there in the same way as with my shaman. Upgrades are few and far between not only because I play him less, but also because I do 5mans more and tanking plate doesn't drop on every run.
When I log in, I log in as my shaman and do my dailies, run a heroic, do some quests, and then if my wife doesn't feel like hanging out or talking, or have everything done I want to get done on my shaman, THEN I log into my warrior.
All this talk of giving and taking and feelings of needing manifested in my personal life.
I will think of some good examples later and post them.
The weirdest thing about playing so much is that most of my personality comes through while playing.
When I first came to wow, I rolled an orc warrior on an RP PVE server.
I took it for granted that names were normally RP like, at a later time I was on a non rp server and the non rp names drove me crazy.
I picked up mining and blacksmithing for my warrior, and spent a long time leveling up blacksmithing. I really wanted to make gear for myself and others and so it was nice having blacksmithing. I was broke, all the time. It seemed at the time that there was nothing I could make to sell for a profit and it was worth more to sell the ore/bars than to make gear. I shelved my warrior and rolled a few alliance toons.
After awhile, I felt that I missed the playstyle and feeling of being with my fellow horde members. I then rolled my shaman, and picked up skinning and mining and really enjoyed playing him.
When I got to 70 I was able to purchase an epic flying mount. That was the total opposite feeling of my warrior. I had plenty of money, mats for gear to be made, and really just enjoyed leveling and questing with him. I decided that I would do all the quests in outland and after that respecced him to healing for pvp/pve.
I really enjoyed that as well. Healing in PVP is really relaxing to a certain extent, because I was harder to kill, and the people around me were harder to kill.
So I mention all that because my next statement is hard to explain.
When I play my warrior, I feel selfish. And when I play my shaman, I feel generous. The best example of that is with my shaman, I have heals for others, totems for buffs for others, totems that clear poisons/diseases which help healers. I mine and skin and sell it on the AH so I am always bringing in money. I don't go out of my way to farm, I just do my dailies and skin and mine while running around. The more I play the more I have.
With Wrath, I already have quite a few crafted epics and badges without really even trying. So when we are in heroics, I rarely want the rewards and am happy to pass on gear and what not. I bought frozen orbs off the AH, and then turned around and looted 3 while doing heroics.
My warrior is exactly the opposite experience. I don't have many tools to do different things. Poisons, diseases, stuns, fears and the like affect my DPS/tanking. I need people to heal me, and DPS for me.
I need others to sheep, hex, sap mobs that I mark. I also feel that no one understands warriors, and don't know what I can and can't do. All this builds up and I start getting greedy for drops and loot and money. I love tanking and blacksmithing but the feelings of contentment aren't there in the same way as with my shaman. Upgrades are few and far between not only because I play him less, but also because I do 5mans more and tanking plate doesn't drop on every run.
When I log in, I log in as my shaman and do my dailies, run a heroic, do some quests, and then if my wife doesn't feel like hanging out or talking, or have everything done I want to get done on my shaman, THEN I log into my warrior.
All this talk of giving and taking and feelings of needing manifested in my personal life.
I will think of some good examples later and post them.
19.12.08
25 man raids
I was able to get in on a 25 man raid of archerion who is a pve boss in the pvp zone of wintersgrasp. Very nice run, I was able to get some shards and emblems. After that they did Sarth at obsidian sanctuary. No loot but also was able to pick up some shards and emblems. I really liked the way that the guild leader explained the fight. He had a few sentences and they described some of the activity, then we started it up. After we wiped on the first attempt, now that everyone has a feel for what happens, we succeeded on the second attempt with only 3 deaths. I have been on raids where we spend 15 minutes explaining the fight and the phases and we wipe 3 times in a row.
And I love the fact that we get emblems and shards when we down bosses, makes not winning anything ok since at some point we can pick up something with emblems.
And I love the fact that we get emblems and shards when we down bosses, makes not winning anything ok since at some point we can pick up something with emblems.
17.12.08
quickarmory
Wowinsider.com had a link to http://quickarmory.com/ and I really like this site for quick loading. The other thing I liked was the ability to look up upgrades. Everyone offers that, but the great thing about this site was they only look at items above the items ilevel AND the only look at like items. I use fist weapons, and it showed only fist weapons my ilevel and above.
after clicking on all my greens, the only upgrades are in heroics, or a few crafted items. Farming should be easy for those items.
after clicking on all my greens, the only upgrades are in heroics, or a few crafted items. Farming should be easy for those items.
BRD and UBRS key run
Yesterday someone was asking to have this made:Dark Iron Pulverizer. He had gathered/AH'd/begged people for dark iron ore and needed someone to smelt them into bars. So being the bored guy that I was, Urum ran him through BRD to the black forge, and then ran back to the black anvil. Both are in this instance. I never realized how many trash mobs were in BRD! That place is chuck full of some nasty mobs. Every group had runners at low health, and some groups even had a mob that would bubble and heal himself. That was just crazy. No wonder when I went with ten people it took so long. He ended up bailing shortly after that, I don't think he expected it to take all night. He ended up thanking me twice though for helping.
Well after all that time in BRD, I thought, might as well pickup the UBRS key since I am here. LBRS is crazy! I got lost a few times and I still don't know how to actually make your way through there with a straight run.
There is a quartermaster that drops Plans: Annihilator and after killing him twice, he didn't cough it up. /shrug
After the patch 3.0.8 maybe I will solo UBRS.
Well after all that time in BRD, I thought, might as well pickup the UBRS key since I am here. LBRS is crazy! I got lost a few times and I still don't know how to actually make your way through there with a straight run.
There is a quartermaster that drops Plans: Annihilator and after killing him twice, he didn't cough it up. /shrug
After the patch 3.0.8 maybe I will solo UBRS.
14.12.08
Enhancement ability rotation
So far, this is my rotation.
FS, SS, LL, MWx5 then LB, Lava Burst, earth shock or flame shock.
someone said, that Lava burst is lowering my DPS, but i am not sure about that.
Is there a better attack rotation?
FS, SS, LL, MWx5 then LB, Lava Burst, earth shock or flame shock.
someone said, that Lava burst is lowering my DPS, but i am not sure about that.
Is there a better attack rotation?
Gathering professions.
Lets be clear, I love professions.
Now, why am I a skinner and a miner, instead of a leatherwork or alchemist or Jewelcrafter?
1. Gold.
2. ???
Yeah, that's about it. I can take Borean leather, and have a Leatherworker turn it into Heavy Borean leather and turn around and make a profit.
That's handy. I can also use part of the Heavy Borean leather and have him make me something good.
Now you might ask, what stuff are you farming for that they can make?
here is my short list:
Giantmaim Bracers
Giantmaim Legguards
Those are for PVE type activities.
And for PVP I would like to start out with the swiftarrow set.
Swiftarrow Belt
Swiftarrow Boots
Swiftarrow Bracers
Swiftarrow Gauntlets
Swiftarrow Hauberk
Swiftarrow Helm
Swiftarrow Leggings
Swiftarrow Shoulderguards
Mats look preatty easy to pick up for these actually.
I like the look of the female orc, so here is what all the swiftarrow looks like on one.
All of those are BOE so all you need is to find a Leatherwork(LW) to make them for you. My one rule is to always tip alot, maybe 10g per item made for the LW who makes them for me.
And I can always find a LW to combine things for me.
You have to keep in mind that someone who spends all his time and gold leveling up a tradeskill does it for many reasons.
1. They like to make gear for themselves
2. They like to make it for other people
3. They would like to profit from making it for other people.
4. Its something to do while you are sitting in town waiting for a battleground, dungeon, raid, or the like, and fishing is too boring.
When you don't tip your LW for making something, I personally feel like you are telling them, I take you for granted.
And that doesn't bode well for me.
A few nights ago, I had a LW make me two pieces of gear, and he fronted 7 of the Heavy Borean Leathers for free. I thought that was just awesome. He was able to get a skill up and I received the gear that I wanted.
I still tipped him though, cause I appreciated his time.
Now, here is a wowhead comparison of all that.
Now, why am I a skinner and a miner, instead of a leatherwork or alchemist or Jewelcrafter?
1. Gold.
2. ???
Yeah, that's about it. I can take Borean leather, and have a Leatherworker turn it into Heavy Borean leather and turn around and make a profit.
That's handy. I can also use part of the Heavy Borean leather and have him make me something good.
Now you might ask, what stuff are you farming for that they can make?
here is my short list:
Giantmaim Bracers
Giantmaim Legguards
Those are for PVE type activities.
And for PVP I would like to start out with the swiftarrow set.
Swiftarrow Belt
Swiftarrow Boots
Swiftarrow Bracers
Swiftarrow Gauntlets
Swiftarrow Hauberk
Swiftarrow Helm
Swiftarrow Leggings
Swiftarrow Shoulderguards
Mats look preatty easy to pick up for these actually.
I like the look of the female orc, so here is what all the swiftarrow looks like on one.
All of those are BOE so all you need is to find a Leatherwork(LW) to make them for you. My one rule is to always tip alot, maybe 10g per item made for the LW who makes them for me.
And I can always find a LW to combine things for me.
You have to keep in mind that someone who spends all his time and gold leveling up a tradeskill does it for many reasons.
1. They like to make gear for themselves
2. They like to make it for other people
3. They would like to profit from making it for other people.
4. Its something to do while you are sitting in town waiting for a battleground, dungeon, raid, or the like, and fishing is too boring.
When you don't tip your LW for making something, I personally feel like you are telling them, I take you for granted.
And that doesn't bode well for me.
A few nights ago, I had a LW make me two pieces of gear, and he fronted 7 of the Heavy Borean Leathers for free. I thought that was just awesome. He was able to get a skill up and I received the gear that I wanted.
I still tipped him though, cause I appreciated his time.
Now, here is a wowhead comparison of all that.
Level 80
I made it to level 80 this week, and what a ride it has been.
I really enjoyed alot of the places in Northrend.
I really enjoyed alot of the places in Northrend.
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