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[CarbonatedFalcon]

I keep avoiding frost because insane hit cap. Sell me on it.

The hit cap really is still 8% to avoid missing specials which is where most of your damage comes from, higher than that you just get more white swings (which is good, don't get me wrong, but you don't gem for it, you gem/enchant for STR or expertise to cap first.)

So if that's what you were worried about, don't worry about it.

Other than that, it's pretty powerful right now due to killing machine giving us a ton of free crits at a time when crit rating is so low (5%ish). My Obliterates crit for 25k-40k on average, so I can burst down a lot of stuff pretty quickly. Howling Blast is also a useful tool (though less so when CC is involved) as it's a powerful AoE instant cast spell from a melee class. Corborus in H Stonecore I can one shot all his adds from his crystal spit, which was a real boon in a group with 3 melee DPS.

I'm not just a huge fan of unholy and pet classes in general I guess. Unholy I've probably played the least though out of the 3 specs, so maybe with the recent changes I'd like it better. However, I was a frost tank for the longest time and blood dps, so just switching those two around made it easy for me. (Still miss Howling Blast as a tanking tool though, heh.)

 

[SnakeswithLasers]

Holy Paladins just got hotfix nerfed pretty good, but everyone saw this coming. Still, with the Paladin community what it is, the outrage and tears will be quite high.

What exactly did they do though?

I'm assuming they changed Tower of Radiance to not generate Holy Power and Light of Dawn was nerfed.

 

[Angry Grimace]

As dual wield frost, I can do upwards of 14k on trash (if I don't have to worry much about CC), and a little less on bosses (~11-12k.) Feels good. Haven't taken him out tanking much yet even though that's my main spec, since I'm still powering through reputations and the like so I won't feel so squishy. It's hard considering I've almost always been an overgeared tank since about July of 2009. :lol

Oh, and thank god for the archeology buff. That shit was WAY too grindy before. This buff is just about what it needed, I think.

I kind of wish Hungering Cold would just work as a real CC instead of lame fake CC that doesn't really do much for more than 10 seconds.

I haven't gotten to play much...is the need for constant CC and lack of AoE aggro moves for tanks cutting down on your abillity to apply FF with Howling Blast and use up Rime Procs?

 

[Angry Grimace]

What exactly did they do though?

I'm assuming they changed Tower of Radiance to not generate Holy Power and Light of Dawn was nerfed.

Correct. It's because they don't like the idea of mana-free heals in any sense. The only way to sensibly fix it is to make you generate less HP and in that case to not make your HP moves stupid-powerful.

A common saying in the last week was; "The Paladin niche is being good at everything."

The hit cap really is still 8% to avoid missing specials which is where most of your damage comes from, higher than that you just get more white swings (which is good, don't get me wrong, but you don't gem for it, you gem/enchant for STR or expertise to cap first.)

So if that's what you were worried about, don't worry about it.

Other than that, it's pretty powerful right now due to killing machine giving us a ton of free crits at a time when crit rating is so low (5%ish). My Obliterates crit for 25k-40k on average, so I can burst down a lot of stuff pretty quickly. Howling Blast is also a useful tool (though less so when CC is involved) as it's a powerful AoE instant cast spell from a melee class. Corborus in H Stonecore I can one shot all his adds from his crystal spit, which was a real boon in a group with 3 melee DPS.

I'm not just a huge fan of unholy and pet classes in general I guess. Unholy I've probably played the least though out of the 3 specs, so maybe with the recent changes I'd like it better. However, I was a frost tank for the longest time and blood dps, so just switching those two around made it easy for me. (Still miss Howling Blast as a tanking tool though, heh.)

You don't have to hard cap hit on a DW DK, and the hit cap for specials is 5% because dual wielding takes Nerves of Cold Steel for 3% free hit. It's far less important than on say, a fury warrior because you don't generate any resources from white swings on a DK.

In general, missing on a DW frost DK is far less punitive than most classes because DW isn't GCD capped anyways and runes regen at 9/10 when you are parried or miss (however, you do not retain RP from missed Frost Strikes.)

Edit: (I'm referring to the hard cap; the hard cap when you don't miss on your off-hand melee swings is 27%)

 

[SnakeswithLasers]

Correct. It's because they don't like the idea of mana-free heals in any sense. The only way to sensibly fix it is to make you generate less HP and in that case to not make your HP moves stupid-powerful.

Ya, looks like Tower of Radiance doesn't proc HP from Holy Light (just Flash of Light and Divine Light).

It's an interesting double-nerf though. I haven't healed at 85, so I don't know how powerful pallies are, but it looks like they're making it much more difficult to get to 3 charges of HP now--but once you're there, you aren't healing for as much as you were. Seems to be getting rid of what is supposed to be the Paladin's mana efficient solution. I wonder if they'll give us more of an incentive to get up and generate HP using Crusader Strike--that'd be fun and novel.

A common saying in the last week was; "The Paladin niche is being good at everything."

Are druids not faring well in Cata?

 

[Meteorain]

Are druids not faring well in Cata?

Quite the opposite.

They are abusing everything. Hell Bear tanks are rivaling most dps whilst tanking (even surpassing many on packs). I would say they are up there with Ele shamans in terms of dps.

 

[Tamanon]

Yeah, Druids are in a good place right now, they're good in all 4 roles, but not overpowered.

 

[Meteorain]

I don't know about not overpowered, but they certainly are benefiting very nicely from their mastery and are dealing out huge damage. Those bleeds and now constant crits are nuts.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Ya, looks like Tower of Radiance doesn't proc HP from Holy Light (just Flash of Light and Divine Light).

It's an interesting double-nerf though. I haven't healed at 85, so I don't know how powerful pallies are, but it looks like they're making it much more difficult to get to 3 charges of HP now--but once you're there, you aren't healing for as much as you were. Seems to be getting rid of what is supposed to be the Paladin's mana efficient solution. I wonder if they'll give us more of an incentive to get up and generate HP using Crusader Strike--that'd be fun and novel.

Are druids not faring well in Cata?

They don't want Light of Dawn to be super awesome, they want you to default to Word of Glory.

 

[CarbonatedFalcon]

I kind of wish Hungering Cold would just work as a real CC instead of lame fake CC that doesn't really do much for more than 10 seconds.

I haven't gotten to play much...is the need for constant CC and lack of AoE aggro moves for tanks cutting down on your abillity to apply FF with Howling Blast and use up Rime Procs?

Yeah, hungering cold I almost never use in PvE - it's pretty lame right now. PvP it's useful though.

As for the CC involved, it does cut down on what I could do somewhat, but if your tanks are competent, they will move the tanked mobs away from the CCed mobs, so it doesn't become an issue. That's not to say I haven't sat on rime procs unable to use them for awhile. Occasionally, I'll use outbreak on a single mob if the CC is difficult, and then I have more free runes for Obliterate. With HB being a primary tool, you just have to be careful using it, and Icy Touch if necessary - I already pull enough threat.

Concerning the hit cap - yeah, forgot that it really is only 5% due to Nerves of Cold Steel.

Would also be nice if hungering cold allowed frost mages to proc crits off of the frozen targets, but I don't think it does (correct if wrong.) Would be some interesting synergy there.

 

[Retro]

I wonder if they'll give us more of an incentive to get up and generate HP using Crusader Strike--that'd be fun and novel.

I've always wanted to see exactly that, and when HP was first announced a lot of people thought that's what they'd be shifting towards. Considering their plate armor, baseline defensive abilities and position in lore as heroic hammer-wielding badasses, Paladins should be in the trenches anyways. That should be their niche; front-line combat healers. Hanging back and casting spells is for sissies.:lol

 

[SnakeswithLasers]

They don't want Light of Dawn to be super awesome, they want you to default to Word of Glory.

How is Holy Radiance? LoD is pretty finicky due to the positioning requirement--if it's not doing as much healing, how are paladins' other party heals working?

I haven't healed any Cataclysm content (prefer tanking) and was only healing heroics for about a week before the expansion hit, so I don't have a ton of experience with the class anyway.

 

[Magnus]

FFFFFUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCKKKKKK

I decided to just enjoy my game on my laptop through my school's network today between classes. Worked just fine. Then, I try and log on at home, and the client's detected my IP shift and require that I verify my identity by e-mail. Cool, I appreciate the security. Only I just now realize that the e-mail address associated with my battle net ID (my WoW login user name) is actually no longer an e-mail address I can access! FML

Blizzard's customer service line's queue is "Full, so we can't take your call at this time".

WTF is this shit? Who do I contact to re-verify my identity and fucking PLAY?

 

[notworksafe]

You'll have to call them. The queue being full means there is over 1 hour of wait.

 

[Magnus]

Fuckin brutal.

I've never encountered a "full queue" for any call centre ever. Jesus.

 

[notworksafe]

Yes, who'd expect there to be a lot of people calling about a game with 12 million subscribers a week after a major expansion?

Also it's not "a" call center. It's many call centers all across the country all tied together. All full.

 

[Magnus]

Yes, who'd expect there to be a lot of people calling about a game with 12 million subscribers a week after a major expansion?

Also it's not "a" call center. It's many call centers all across the country all tied together. All full.

Of course there are more calls the first week after an expansion. I don't need your typical smug asshole response to remind me friend, thanks.

Let me wait in a queue though, even if it's an hour. Me having to check back every half hour is ridiculous.

Thankfully, I got through this time, and have a 22-minute wait time.

Also it's not "a" call center. It's many call centers all across the country all tied together. All full.

Irrelevant to anything I'm asking about? You're just trying to find something to tell me off about. That's cool.

 

[Xevren]

Dumb questions from my newbie self if anyone can help out. Is there anywhere that shows what zones I should go to for my level for quests? I'm level 33 and did pretty much everything in Stranglethorn, I just came back after a few years off to play around since that Shattering patch sounded pretty neat and don't really remember where to go.

Question number 2!
I got this random drop yesterday and just figured it was some worthless thing but didn't even see any on the AH, so I was wondering if it was really as rare as it says on this website right here: http://www.wowwiki.com/Parrot_Cage_(Hyacinth_Macaw)
There really isn't any way that some worthless parrot goes for as much as it says does it? That's just ridiculous, but I don't even know how much to put it up for.

 

[notworksafe]

Just annoyed at another pointless whine

EDIT: Parrot sells for 20k+ easily. Don't sell it on the AH. Sell it in /2 to avoid the AH taking a massive chunk of gold from their cut. Don't expect it to sell right away either. It can take a month of advertising to get rid of it.

 

[Magnus]

Dumb questions from my newbie self if anyone can help out. Is there anywhere that shows what zones I should go to for my level for quests? I'm level 33 and did pretty much everything in Stranglethorn, I just came back after a few years off to play around since that Shattering patch sounded pretty neat and don't really remember where to go.

Question number 2!
I got this random drop yesterday and just figured it was some worthless thing but didn't even see any on the AH, so I was wondering if it was really as rare as it says on this website right here: http://www.wowwiki.com/Parrot_Cage_(Hyacinth_Macaw)
There really isn't any way that some worthless parrot goes for as much as it says does it? That's just ridiculous, but I don't even know how much to put it up for.

Lucky bastard. Yes, there are always morons willing to drop that much gold for rare stuff, even if it's worthless. Yeah, highball it for sure. 20k gold, and see if someone bites.

 

[Alex]

There's some really aggravating itemization, trying to build up extra ilvl's for heroic entry and some slots are beyond obnoxious to fill. Caster shield, for one.

 

[NameGenerated]

Dumb questions from my newbie self if anyone can help out. Is there anywhere that shows what zones I should go to for my level for quests? I'm level 33 and did pretty much everything in Stranglethorn, I just came back after a few years off to play around since that Shattering patch sounded pretty neat and don't really remember where to go.

Tol-Barad is really fun btw.

 

[C.Dark.DN]

Fuckin brutal.

I've never encountered a "full queue" for any call centre ever. Jesus.

I have. My state's unemployment call center. But, yes, most leave you in an actual queue.

Edit: Forgot to mention something about the unemployment call center. I had to go through a long recording before I could choose the input of many and get rejected. :lol

 

[Sai-kun]

lol

I'm in H GB and a couple guildies die from Deathwing, so I ask where it is, they say Uldum! So I hearth out real fast [to the dismay of my guildies in the group with me, but we weren't pulling anything at the time anyways!], port to Uldum, and die THE SECOND I load. He burned the whole little town where the QM and innkeeper are :lol Got my achievement though!

 

[C.Dark.DN]

lol

I'm in H GB and a couple guildies die from Deathwing, so I ask where it is, they say Uldum! So I hearth out real fast [to the dismay of my guildies in the group with me, but we weren't pulling anything at the time anyways!], port to Uldum, and die THE SECOND I load. He burned the whole little town where the QM and innkeeper are :lol Got my achievement though!

I got the achievement while was doing a uneventful hour long grind of archeology. When I was flying towards a fossil dig site in Northern Barrens I saw him fly by and did not survive. The blazes lasted for a few minutes and they were huge/bright.

 

[Scrow]

Are druids not faring well in Cata?

i don't know about their tanking or healing rolls, but i've had reasonable success as feral dps and i've seen balance dps get impressive numbers too.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Yeah, hungering cold I almost never use in PvE - it's pretty lame right now. PvP it's useful though.

As for the CC involved, it does cut down on what I could do somewhat, but if your tanks are competent, they will move the tanked mobs away from the CCed mobs, so it doesn't become an issue. That's not to say I haven't sat on rime procs unable to use them for awhile. Occasionally, I'll use outbreak on a single mob if the CC is difficult, and then I have more free runes for Obliterate. With HB being a primary tool, you just have to be careful using it, and Icy Touch if necessary - I already pull enough threat.

Concerning the hit cap - yeah, forgot that it really is only 5% due to Nerves of Cold Steel.

Would also be nice if hungering cold allowed frost mages to proc crits off of the frozen targets, but I don't think it does (correct if wrong.) Would be some interesting synergy there.

I remember when you used to be able to Pestilence Devouring Plague. Now that was synergy.

 

[Angry Grimace]

There's some really aggravating itemization, trying to build up extra ilvl's for heroic entry and some slots are beyond obnoxious to fill. Caster shield, for one.

BOP Chaos Orb is the most baffling Blizzard decision ever.

 

[krypt0nian]

i don't know about their tanking or healing rolls, but i've had reasonable success as feral dps and i've seen balance dps get impressive numbers too.

I for one am surprised that I'm topping DPS as a cat for the first time in WoW. It does hurt that I seem to be outgearing my group so far.

 

[Scrow]

I for one am surprised that I'm topping DPS as a cat for the first time in WoW. It does hurt that I seem to be outgearing my group so far.

i was under-geared compared to at least one of the dps in my group and i still topped out dps on bosses. i'm not very good with trash, but my damage shines on a boss.

 

[Cyrillus]

I kind of wish Hungering Cold would just work as a real CC instead of lame fake CC that doesn't really do much for more than 10 seconds.

I haven't gotten to play much...is the need for constant CC and lack of AoE aggro moves for tanks cutting down on your abillity to apply FF with Howling Blast and use up Rime Procs?

I just wish they'd make a 2nd Hungering Cold glyph (or even change the current one) to make it target-able and affect only 1 target, but last for 30sec or whatever the going duration for CC is these days. Even make it not afflict the target with frost fever if they want.


Also, has anyone noticed anything weird with the average item level calculation? It seems to be calculating based on whatever gear I have, either on my body or in my bags. Swapping out a piece of gear for a higher ilvl piece in my bags does not change my average ilvl. Likewise, switching from my dps gear to my tanking gear (which is much lower average ilvl) doesn't change my itemlevel. I actually tested this by completing a quest that gave an upgrade for me as a reward, and my average ilvl went up as soon as the item hit my bags. Oddly enough, it doesn't count for mail or leather gear that I could wear that has a higher ilvl.

 

[hamchan]

Oh excellent, the level brackets for Throne of the tides and Blackrock Caverns in the dungeon finder has changed to 80-85. I didn't want to interrupt my levelling treadmill to do them.

 

[shintoki]

Lucky bastard. Yes, there are always morons willing to drop that much gold for rare stuff, even if it's worthless. Yeah, highball it for sure. 20k gold, and see if someone bites.

I am not a moron! I love mini pets. I own all the rare drop ones by offering ridiculous sums of cash! I only paid 10k for that one though, Oozling+Flying Manticore thing cost me 15K(I also threw in an extra 2k, because the guy did transfer servers to mine just to sell them). :lol

 

[Conceited]

Legendary (the WoW show) is starting now

http://www.justin.tv/gamebreakertv

 

[Rpgmonkey]

Man, without the more cinematic style of some quests the Harrison Jones quests would be horrible, assuming they attempted them at all.

Uldum is so awesome!

Question number 2!
I got this random drop yesterday and just figured it was some worthless thing but didn't even see any on the AH, so I was wondering if it was really as rare as it says on this website right here: http://www.wowwiki.com/Parrot_Cage_(Hyacinth_Macaw)
There really isn't any way that some worthless parrot goes for as much as it says does it? That's just ridiculous, but I don't even know how much to put it up for.

While it's nothing compared to that, I got an Elementium Geode just around when I first started mining Elementium. :lol

It wasn't until I looked at the AH today when I realized just what I found. Crazy.

 

[hamchan]

any good WoW podcasts?

 

[Angry Grimace]

I just wish they'd make a 2nd Hungering Cold glyph (or even change the current one) to make it target-able and affect only 1 target, but last for 30sec or whatever the going duration for CC is these days. Even make it not afflict the target with frost fever if they want.


Also, has anyone noticed anything weird with the average item level calculation? It seems to be calculating based on whatever gear I have, either on my body or in my bags. Swapping out a piece of gear for a higher ilvl piece in my bags does not change my average ilvl. Likewise, switching from my dps gear to my tanking gear (which is much lower average ilvl) doesn't change my itemlevel. I actually tested this by completing a quest that gave an upgrade for me as a reward, and my average ilvl went up as soon as the item hit my bags. Oddly enough, it doesn't count for mail or leather gear that I could wear that has a higher ilvl.

It would be fine if it only affected the target closest to you w/30 second freeze because in that case you could just death grip them and use it to CC.

 

[Twig]

any good WoW podcasts?

haha good one

Spoiler

i might be interested in this as well as long as they're not a bunch of fucking nerds talking about stats

 

[Spire]

There's some really aggravating itemization, trying to build up extra ilvl's for heroic entry and some slots are beyond obnoxious to fill. Caster shield, for one.

It's ludicrous. If you aren't tank/dps plate, you're fucked when it comes to gear.

 

[Trasher]

There's some really aggravating itemization, trying to build up extra ilvl's for heroic entry and some slots are beyond obnoxious to fill. Caster shield, for one.

Caster shield is 950 JP at the JP vendor. Was super easy to prepare for during Wrath.

 

[Cyrillus]

as long as they're not a bunch of fucking nerds

I've never understood this mentality among WoW players, or people who are into nerdy pastimes in general. Why do people feel the need to quantify their nerdiness? I have a friend that used to do this all the time; he'd constantly be making snide comments about the other participants being way more nerdy than he/we were at the Magic: The Gathering tournaments we were attending.

It would be fine if it only affected the target closest to you w/30 second freeze because in that case you could just death grip them and use it to CC.

I guess that would be okay, but that mechanic sounds awkward in use. I know it's easy to move, but basically with that mechanic you'd be CCing a mob in the general area of where your group is standing. I just figured we'd need to have a trade-off to get the additional time, and for PVE I'd be perfectly fine with Hungering Cold affecting only one target if it lasted longer than 10 seconds.

 

[C.Dark.DN]

Any tips on farming troll fragments at 525? All these night elf, dwarf, and fossil fragments are annoying. Putting stuff in Vashj'ir is even more annoying.

 

[cuevas. PhD.]

I've never understood this mentality among WoW players, or people who are into nerdy pastimes in general. Why do people feel the need to quantify their nerdiness? I have a friend that used to do this all the time; he'd constantly be making snide comments about the other participants being way more nerdy than he/we were at the Magic: The Gathering tournaments we were attending.
.

:lol :lol :lol :lol

Nerds.

Spoiler

Wait, im playing wow? FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

 

[Rokam]

Any tips on farming troll fragments at 525? All these night elf, dwarf, and fossil fragments are annoying. Putting stuff in Vashj'ir is even more annoying.

Buy a gun and shoot yourself. I'm about at the breaking point. I have over 600 fossil fragments and am so tired of those 3 spawn points in Vashj'ir. I get shit being rare but this is ridiculous. All I've been doing every night is farming for Zin'Rokh. I figured with them fixing the Explorer racial it'd help, but no it just makes me angrier more often. :lol

 

[Scrow]

I've never understood this mentality among WoW players, or people who are into nerdy pastimes in general.

nerds are not entertaining though. i don't want to listen to them in a podcast. i already talk about that kind of shit with my friends.

 

[C.Dark.DN]

Buy a gun and shoot yourself. I'm about at the breaking point. I have over 600 fossil fragments and am so tired of those 3 spawn points in Vashj'ir. I get shit being rare but this is ridiculous. All I've been doing every night is farming for Zin'Rokh. I figured with them fixing the Explorer racial it'd help, but no it just makes me angrier more often. :lol

I should have saved all my troll fragments for 450. I was getting a lot back then it seems.

 

[civilstrife]

So... What's the easiest non default flying mount to get?

 

[mcrae]

I've never understood this mentality among WoW players, or people who are into nerdy pastimes in general. Why do people feel the need to quantify their nerdiness? I have a friend that used to do this all the time; he'd constantly be making snide comments about the other participants being way more nerdy than he/we were at the Magic: The Gathering tournaments we were attending.

i guess you can say all wow players are nerdy, but i think its ludicrous to think you can't say that some are nerdier than others

 

[C.Dark.DN]

That's like saying you don't want to listen to sports podcast because of "jocks". There's tons of appealing personalities in the world that can like/talk about X and do not have to be like Y.

 

[Dresden]

My god.

Enhancement is so goddamn amazing.