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fallout

Member
Zalasta said:
Call me stubborn, but if I have to wear gears not designed for my class in order to do my job, then I'm not really good at what I'm doing. Maybe it's not the best attitude, but frankly, I still heal better and have more +healing then many people who try to compensate by wearing cloths and leather. I mean cloth-wearers have no other choices but what is available to them, and they get by fine, or maybe that's exactly why their gears are so much better designed than others.
It's pretty simple really, if the cloth piece has better stats than what mail piece that I'm wearing, I take it (assuming there isn't a cloth wearer who needs it, obviously). Shaman mana efficiency is terrible.

border said:
That seems odd......you don't have to link his profile if he doesn't want it up anywhere (he probably gets crap as it is), but what is some of the stuff he's wearing?
Heh, somehow I'd feel odd posting his profile. And it's not all leather or anything. He's only wearing 3 pieces (the Fel Skin set). He's specced 0/47/14, has over 1600 AP unbuffed, 30% chance to crit and a 178 hit rating (about an 11% additional hit chance). Of course, he's only got about 8k health, but that's plenty for a DPS raid member.

The basic idea is, you maximize the stats that you want to focus on while basically ignoring the armor class that you're "supposed" to be using. If somehting better comes along in plate, yeah, I'm sure he'll take it, but a lot of plate stuff doesn't have the AP, crit and hit stuff that you see designed for rogues.
 

Meier

Member
I hope he isnt actively going for +hit gear at this point as 11% additional chance is pretty much a giant waste. Anything beyond 6% or so is almost completely useless.
 

yacobod

Banned
Meier said:
I hope he isnt actively going for +hit gear at this point as 11% additional chance is pretty much a giant waste. Anything beyond 6% or so is almost completely useless.

wrong dude

the offhand attacks for a dw warrior have a huge hit penalty

before xpac when i was lvl 60, i used to run around with 13-14% to hit when i was specced dw fury for raid dps

i would agree for pvp 5% is where you want to be, but for pve, %hit is huge for a dw fury warrior
 

Meier

Member
yacobod said:
wrong dude

the offhand attacks for a dw warrior have a huge hit penalty

before xpac when i was lvl 60, i used to run around with 13-14% to hit when i was specced dw fury for raid dps

i would agree for pvp 5% is where you want to be, but for pve, %hit is huge for a dw fury warrior

Didn't even think about the off-hand -- definitely makes sense for dual wielding.
 
MrPing1000 said:
Clear Attunmen, Moroes, Maiden, Opera and Curator on wednesday. Spend the next few dies trying to kill Aran usually without success (we've killed him a few times) Get bored of wiping around 10 times a night on him. Go kill the prince in 1 or 2 tries.

Azwethinkweiz said:
Do you cheese prince? Because if you do that'll most likely get fixed and it's back to wiping for you.

Prince is a pretty easy fight even if you don't cheese it. It just takes a little raid mobility. If you move during phase 1 (if fenced in) so you make it through phase 2 without being forced to move, you're good. Aran isn't a hard fight with enough interrupts and decent control of the elementals (one lock makes a huge difference) but with 2 interrupts or less and/or no lock it becomes *much* harder. I just don't like the assumption that people are exploiting encounters because they struggle with a boss earlier in the instance.
 

explodet

Member
funkmastergeneral said:
Just finished up quests in Zangarmarsh, i just hit level 64, where should i go to next?
Terrokar Forest has a bunch of quests - Allerian/Stonebreaker, The Bone Wastes, and a handful of quests for the Cenarion Expedition. I always save Nagrand for lvl 65.
 

Meier

Member
funkmastergeneral said:
Just finished up quests in Zangarmarsh, i just hit level 64, where should i go to next?

Probably Nagrand until about 67-68, then Blade's Edge until 69 and at that point you can pick Netherstorm or Shadowmoon Valley. I went the Netherstorm route.
 

firex

Member
Meier said:
Anyone able to post some strategies for an early Warlock? I'm giving my first caster a shot and would love some suggestions on spec, etc. early on.
Just go with affliction until level 50, then respec to the felguard. Make sure you get 5/5 improved corruption first with your lock, and 2/2 improved curse of agony isn't bad either.

When it comes to the felguard spec, put 1 point into mana feed, and otherwise build pretty much however you want. The only real must-haves are demonic sacrifice, soul link, fel domination and master summoner. you can stick with affliction or go destruction after that, although destruction will probably feel more like your hunter since you'll have the felguard tanking stuff and your spells will work like auto-shot/aimed/steady shots.
 
cubicle47b said:
Prince is a pretty easy fight even if you don't cheese it. It just takes a little raid mobility. If you move during phase 1 (if fenced in) so you make it through phase 2 without being forced to move, you're good. Aran isn't a hard fight with enough interrupts and decent control of the elementals (one lock makes a huge difference) but with 2 interrupts or less and/or no lock it becomes *much* harder. I just don't like the assumption that people are exploiting encounters because they struggle with a boss earlier in the instance.

We can't do Aran with 1 warlock. We all know his abilities we always get him to elementals then it goes to shit. I don't understand what's going on which is incredibly frustrating when u wipe on him 8 times a night. So annoying that we can do 5 bosses in 1 night easily then hit a brick wall
 
cubicle47b said:
I just don't like the assumption that people are exploiting encounters because they struggle with a boss earlier in the instance.

I think the point I was making is that if they can't defeat Aran the chances of beating non cheese prince are slim as well.

P.S. If you can't do Aran with one lock you need to recruit better locks. I don't know what else to tell you.
 

border

Member
firex said:
Just go with affliction until level 50, then respec to the felguard.
Staying with Affliction is just as good or better. Once you have Unstable Affliction, you get to play the Ronco way -- Fear It and Forget It! Plus there's hardly any downtime with Dark Pact.

Just always be looking for +Damage gear. Since DOTs get the full bonus from it, locks have more to gain from it than most other classes.
 

firex

Member
I don't know how I forgot unholy power and master demonologist, those are requirements too if you go with a felguard build.
 
I think the point I was making is that if they can't defeat Aran the chances of beating non cheese prince are slim as well.

Yeah, and I think that's bullshit. Prince is more of a tank gear check than anything else with a little movement thrown in. Aran is an execution fight that becomes much easier depending on how you set up your raid group. We killed Aran the second night, then wiped 5 nights on him over the next 2 weeks before figuring out that a third interrupt made the fight about 20x easier for us since it allowed a change from the control method to the burn method. In comparison, we killed Prince on maybe the third pull with a grand strategy of tank and spank and move if we have to in phase 1.
 

Fularu

Banned
MrPing1000 said:
We can't do Aran with 1 warlock. We all know his abilities we always get him to elementals then it goes to shit. I don't understand what's going on which is incredibly frustrating when u wipe on him 8 times a night. So annoying that we can do 5 bosses in 1 night easily then hit a brick wall

What's your raid setup? We kill Aran in 3:12 seconds or less usually (his adds are still up :lol)

Here's ours :

1 prot (me) interupting frost
1 rogue interupting frost
1 enhance shaman interupting fire
1 feral drood / hunter
1 lock
1 mage (interupting, once every 30 seconds, an arcane missile batch)
1 shadow priest
1 pally (holy)
1 priest (holy)
1 Druid/shaman (resto)

When adds spawn the lock fears and banishes one, I tank the other two adds while they burn him down

Unless your raid members are incredibly retarded and don't move out of blizzard/Arcane explosion or don't stop moving during the Flame, he's retarded easy.

Enhance shaman + WF + rogue + warrior (devastate spam sure, but still) + feral drood makes an insane DPS combo and mele wins this fight (ranged has to move way too much to be of any efficience).

I would say the only "challenging" fight is Illhoof without a NP lock and Bane without a pally or when you have to attune the dumb people from your guild that keep telling you how to do a fight they never did when you kill him week in/week out when the retards aren't in your raid -.-
 
A good enhancement shaman is probably the single best character to take to Aran. An interrupt on a 6 second cooldown (and enhancement shamans rarely use their GCD), great melee DPS buffs, bloodlust, and great single target DPS.

edit: Fularu's group is basically perfect for Aran. Mimic it if you can. Our initial group had two interrupts, a prot and fury warrior, and was heavy caster DPS. It was a 6 minute+ fight using the control method and Aran would double-tap healers while our interrupters were waiting on their cooldowns. Plus as the fight drags on the chance of someone doing something stupid goes up (standing in blizzards, flame wreathing the raid, etc.).
 

fallout

Member
explodet said:
I'd build up my enhancement shaman JUST for Aran fights if the guild would let me. I hate that punk so much.
Enhancement shammies are pretty damn good raid DPS. Could probably trade one in for one of your countless rogues and find another healer.
 

unifin

Member
cubicle47b said:
A good enhancement shaman is probably the single best character to take to Aran. An interrupt on a 6 second cooldown (and enhancement shamans rarely use their GCD), great melee DPS buffs, bloodlust, and great single target DPS.

edit: Fularu's group is basically perfect for Aran. Mimic it if you can. Our initial group had two interrupts, a prot and fury warrior, and was heavy caster DPS. It was a 6 minute+ fight using the control method and Aran would double-tap healers while our interrupters were waiting on their cooldowns. Plus as the fight drags on the chance of someone doing something stupid goes up (standing in blizzards, flame wreathing the raid, etc.).

<3 enhancement shammy. So much fun, and hits SO hard.

Tempestion - on Dethecus.

ALmost to 62, and loving every minute of Outlands.
 
Basically, according to Blizzard (and alot of folks testing) thanks to TBC, if you're melee, then +Hit % & +AP is the way to go, far more than the old +Crit and only +5% Hit with decent +AP.

Basically, you can go to the Armory and look up all the Uber guild Rogues/DPS Warriors/Enchancement Shaman/Hunters & see how they're just stacking sh!ttons of +AP +10% Hit more than +Crit % (they go for it ON TOP of the +Hit +AP, but never at the sheer expense)

I've got the best of both worlds: 70th lvl Prot Warrior for Tanking duties & am still lvl'ing up my 51st lvl DPS Warrior for fun duties :)

D.
 

Hero

Member
+hit is a cheap (as far as itemization goes) and effective way of increasing your dps if you're a fury warrior or a rogue.

About 50% of a rogue's dps comes from white damage alone (white damage = auto attacks), depending on if you're combat spec or not. Dual wield specialization increases the damage that your offhand does so those rogues will benefit more from +hit than an assassination or subtlety build. Also, since combat spec is the premier raid dps spec, you get combat potency which gives rogues a very generous ability that gives you a chance to gain energy back when your offhand makes a successful hit.

In short, since +hit and +AP are plentiful thanks to Blizzard's itemization in TBC, you will see the top rogues having massive amounts of both. Long gone are the days of pure agility or crit whores.
 

border

Member
Ok, I think I'm friggin' through with Shattered Halls. Every single group I've been in does fantastic until that retarded pull that's like 4 Elites (1 who cannot be CC'ed) plus 3 regular mobs (and sometimes the Elite dudes sleeping in the barracks too). Oh, and if you wipe any of the guys you killed just respawn -- WTF? Why even put something so hard in a regular endgame dungeon that's sure to be full of pugtards?

I've tried every strategy I can think up but can't get through there. What's the deal? Should I just bring 2 mages for more reliable crowd control?
 

johnsmith

remember me
So we did Gruul again tonight. We blew all our cooldowns. Shield wall. Last stand. Lay on Hands. And the ****er wiped us at 1% left. He had less than 30k hp left. We were so pissed.

Went in again, and kicked the shit out of him the next try. After weeks of wiping, we finally got him. We're only the 3rd guild on the server to down him. We're going to aim for a server first on magtheridon next. We should be able to get Gruul down consistently from now on. The first kill is the hardest.

And I rocked ass. I'm a damn DPS machine.

dpspi1.gif


I'm #3. Correas, shadow priest. The #1 mage was flasked. #2 was a warlock. #4 was a mage. #5 was a warlock. #6 was a Rogue. #7 was another mage. #8 was another warlock.
 

fallout

Member
border said:
I've tried every strategy I can think up but can't get through there. What's the deal? Should I just bring 2 mages for more reliable crowd control?
In my experience, you need a good tank. That's really all there is to it. He's gotta be able to hold multiple mobs at once. Any decent healer should be able to heal through it.
 

firex

Member
shattered halls was really made for pally tanks. It may be the only instance I can think of where a pally tank is actually preferred.
 

yacobod

Banned
did arena first time with my warrior today

was pretty fun, just did 2v2 with a paladin friend of mine

we went 12-2 and already have a 1700 rating, gonna try to get some gladiator gear, hopefully get shoulders and helm for looks :)
 

firex

Member
once my friend gets his rogue to 70 and we get some good blues/maybe rep epics, we're going to make a 3v3 arena team, with me (70 pally), 70 shaman, and 70 rogue. it's probably not the best 3v3 group you could make, but it'll be fun.
 

border

Member
fallout said:
In my experience, you need a good tank. That's really all there is to it. He's gotta be able to hold multiple mobs at once. Any decent healer should be able to heal through it.
But I'm the tank! *cry* It's not that big of a deal for me to hold 2-3 mobs, but the huge group seems almost untankable.

Seriously....in a best case scenario I'm facing down 4 mobs, 5 once the sap breaks. Plus the elites will call in Elite Adds sometimes. How am I supposed to hold aggro on that many dudes? Should we burn down the non-elites first, or just concentrate on the leader?

I just got done with a Shattered Halls run that had 2 mages, a rogue, and a shaman. We were pretty much annihilated annihilated, even with 2 of the Elites sheeped. At this rate I will pretty much never get to Revered with Thrallmar. If the instance pretty much requires a pally tank, that means I'm out of it.
 

fallout

Member
border said:
But I'm the tank! *cry* It's not that big of a deal for me to hold 2-3 mobs, but the huge group seems almost untankable.

Seriously....in a best case scenario I'm facing down 4 mobs, 5 once the sap breaks. Plus the elites will call in Elite Adds sometimes. How am I supposed to hold aggro on that many dudes? Should we burn down the non-elites first, or just concentrate on the leader?
Hrm. I'm mildly drunk right now and I've only done SH a few times. 4 Mobs is ... a lot. I'd be expecting you to hold 3, at most. If sap breaks before a mob is down and you're holding 4, shit isn't being DPS'd fast enough. Get someone to kite something or evasion tank it. I dunno.
 

firex

Member
he's enhance, and we transferred off a server where he had some karazahn epics, so he needs the least gearing up out of all 3 of us. I'm holy shockadin spec, since it's basically the best all-around spec for a pally now... and I wouldn't respec unless, after getting the gladiator holy shock set, I also get the gladiator crusader strike set and a 2h.

I'm not sure though, my shaman friend may actually go with an earth shield spec just so we'll have 2 super survival guys, even though shamans tend to get slaughtered in arenas.
 

fallout

Member
firex said:
I'm not sure though, my shaman friend may actually go with an earth shield spec just so we'll have 2 super survival guys, even though shamans tend to get slaughtered in arenas.
Enh shamans are ****ing useless in PvP. Especially Arena. Unless you're fighting total idiots, they'll drop in a few seconds.

Inmy experience, shamans are easy pickings for rogues and MS wars. Anything else, we can live through. Basically, when you run in, target the warriors first and do your best to keep the healer busy. I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but mortal strike will **** you guys up. If a rogue pops up, get on him. He will rape your resto shammie. Make sure that he's got the PvP trinket on.
 

Hero

Member
fallout said:
Enh shamans are ****ing useless in PvP. Especially Arena. Unless you're fighting total idiots, they'll drop in a few seconds.

Inmy experience, shamans are easy pickings for rogues and MS wars. Anything else, we can live through. Basically, when you run in, target the warriors first and do your best to keep the healer busy. I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but mortal strike will **** you guys up. If a rogue pops up, get on him. He will rape your resto shammie. Make sure that he's got the PvP trinket on.

I don't know how you do it, but my teams always leave the warriors alone since you know, they tend to have the most health and most armor. :p Plus doing damage to them just gives them a full rage bar that much quicker, and that means people start to die. Yeah, mortal strike sucks, but unless you're going to drop him in five seconds it's better to go after someone more squishy.
 

fallout

Member
Hero said:
I don't know how you do it, but my teams always leave the warriors alone since you know, they tend to have the most health and most armor. :p Plus doing damage to them just gives them a full rage bar that much quicker, and that means people start to die. Yeah, mortal strike sucks, but unless you're going to drop him in five seconds it's better to go after someone more squishy.
Heh, I know how to PvP. Since day 1, it's always been squishy first. However, arena is not standard PvP. It's a very highly controlled environment, where CC actually works.

Anyway, we didn't think it would work either, but it's a strat that we found has helped considerably. In 3v3, I would say yeah, target the healer. In 5v5, though, rush the warrior and CC the healer. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but my god does it make a huge difference, especially when that warrior is the thing that's going to be ****ing up your healer most of the time. Also, with 3-4 people focusing on a warrior with little to no healing support, he'll go down quickly. And if you have an MS warrior, it's even faster, which just adds to the hilarity of why this works.
 

Hero

Member
fallout said:
Heh, I know how to PvP. Since day 1, it's always been squishy first. However, arena is not standard PvP. It's a very highly controlled environment, where CC actually works.

Anyway, we didn't think it would work either, but it's a strat that we found has helped considerably. In 3v3, I would say yeah, target the healer. In 5v5, though, rush the warrior and CC the healer. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but my god does it make a huge difference, especially when that warrior is the thing that's going to be ****ing up your healer most of the time. Also, with 3-4 people focusing on a warrior with little to no healing support, he'll go down quickly. And if you have an MS warrior, it's even faster, which just adds to the hilarity of why this works.

I know how to PVP too, but it just seems your method is a bit too crazy. I mean if you have 3-4 people single target focus dps-ing a warrior while you CC the healer, then you could pretty much take out any other class as well. If it's working for your team, that's cool, I just think that's much harder to do than just killing a warlock or hunter since they don't have any defenses against focus fire.
 

yacobod

Banned
Hero said:
I know how to PVP too, but it just seems your method is a bit too crazy. I mean if you have 3-4 people single target focus dps-ing a warrior while you CC the healer, then you could pretty much take out any other class as well. If it's working for your team, that's cool, I just think that's much harder to do than just killing a warlock or hunter since they don't have any defenses against focus fire.


in my limited 2v2 experience

most teams have been a combination of a healing class + warrior

if its druid, priest, or shaman + warrior

i kill the healer first

if its pally + warrior, i kill the warrior first

my healer is a pally so he can weather the warrior storm while i dispatch of the healer

the toughest matchup we've had so far was warlock + paladin
 

firex

Member
I don't think current arena sets will be gone, they're just going to add in new ones that probably cost more points... maybe not though.
 

fallout

Member
Hero said:
I know how to PVP too, but it just seems your method is a bit too crazy. I mean if you have 3-4 people single target focus dps-ing a warrior while you CC the healer, then you could pretty much take out any other class as well. If it's working for your team, that's cool, I just think that's much harder to do than just killing a warlock or hunter since they don't have any defenses against focus fire.
I know it sounds crazy, heh, but honestly, it's worked. We've also tried the "hunter first" strat and had it work with reasonable amounts of success.

Here's how teams try to attack us (resto shaman (me), resto druid, MS war, rogue, mage) ... they IMMEDIATELY focus on me, since the druid is stealthed. I usually pop my trinket soon in, as there's normally a rogue on me. I proceed to spam heal myself while their warrior is getting the shit kicked out of him and the healer is CC'd. If I'm in too much trouble, the druid throws me some heals and I'm fine. As soon as the warrior is out of the way, my job is much easier.

It's effectively a defensive strat. Anyway, like I said, I totally agree that it sounds weird, but hey, it's worked reasonably well for us so far.
 

Ramirez

Member
Me and my friend do the Pally/War combo, we've got up to 1960, but we're around 1910 right now, my PC is ****ed so we haven't been able to do it much lately. That said, our hardest group has always been Lock/Shadow priest, ****ing insane damage on me, and just keep the hound/silence ready when he tries to heal me, pretty much gg unless they really suck.

Actually, we also have a shaman/warrior combo we run, but he plays my shammy an I play his warrior since we suck really bad at trying to do the opposite jobs of our mains :lol Think they're 1750-ish, Heroism with the epic BS 2H sword/Windfury=two shotting people in some cases :D
 

Hero

Member
fallout said:
I know it sounds crazy, heh, but honestly, it's worked. We've also tried the "hunter first" strat and had it work with reasonable amounts of success.

Here's how teams try to attack us (resto shaman (me), resto druid, MS war, rogue, mage) ... they IMMEDIATELY focus on me, since the druid is stealthed. I usually pop my trinket soon in, as there's normally a rogue on me. I proceed to spam heal myself while their warrior is getting the shit kicked out of him and the healer is CC'd. If I'm in too much trouble, the druid throws me some heals and I'm fine. As soon as the warrior is out of the way, my job is much easier.

It's effectively a defensive strat. Anyway, like I said, I totally agree that it sounds weird, but hey, it's worked reasonably well for us so far.

Ah, I see. You have two healers in the group so you can afford to have that kind of strategy. It seems to me that in 5v5, the winning strats usually involve either focus fire dpsing a target to make it a 5v4, or just having an insane amount of survivability and outlasting your opponents health and mana pools. I run with a MS war, mage, holy pally, and an affliction warlock with me playing my rogue. We're a dps oriented group so we can usually kill a squishie in the first minute of the game. Although if we don't it's usually not looking good at that point.
 
Just used the Recovery cd on my computer and now I need to install WoW again, all the patches, Burning Crusade, and those patches. Aye aye aye.

Anyway, I went Ret again for some more PvP fun. A few of my friends are quitting so I don't need to heal for anyone until I join a raiding guild again. My Enhancement Shaman is almost 63 and I might level a Warlock when I'm finished.
 
So my new draenei pally is level 20 now. I quickly talented my way to seal of command (the chance to do 70% extra holy dmg?). Should I basically have this on ALL the time when fighting? I've taken to mostly putting on the other one that judges an enemy to do more holy damage, then putting this on... what other tactics to level my ret pally? Or is holy/protection a viable levelling build? I basically want to go ASAP to outlands :p

Also any links to good talent builds for levelling? And what gear should I focus on being a ret pally. In fact any good links to good gear analysis for any build would be appreciated, I mean my mind boggles at how people know if X weapon is good if it's got 10DPS but a 3.5 speed as opposed to 7 DPS with like a 2.5 speed (random example)... what's better in that? Int, spirit, stam, str, agi? Vs. crit rating, hit rating, armour, block, mana regen, + healing/spell dmg... I just don't know :(

EDIT: fixed up what seal I meant
 
Yeah, Seal of Command is the basis of any Ret Paladin. Until you get Crusader Strike that is. Here's a build I made really fast for you. Not paying too close attention.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=qE0hZZEbht0cuiIot

If you're going to judge Crusader on every mob than you may want to put 3 points into Improved Seal of Crusader. And as far as leveling Holy goes...I did it 1-60 and from 60-70. It's doable, but if you're solo leveling and mostly questing Ret is probably the way to go.
 

Ashodin

Member
Chemo said:
What? Current arena gear is going to be retired?
As far as I know, yes. Blizzard said they would be rotating out the Arena sets to be based on what is currently available at the moment for raids. Which means, even if you can't acquire T5, you can sure as hell get the recolor T5 from Arena-ing.

No idea if points save over to the next season (which I assume NOT).

Which means you have a limited amount of time to gain the gear, then it's gone.

I'm hoping I'm wrong.
 

Tunesmith

formerly "chigiri"
Maxrpg said:
As far as I know, yes. Blizzard said they would be rotating out the Arena sets to be based on what is currently available at the moment for raids. Which means, even if you can't acquire T5, you can sure as hell get the recolor T5 from Arena-ing.

No idea if points save over to the next season (which I assume NOT).

Which means you have a limited amount of time to gain the gear, then it's gone.

I'm hoping I'm wrong.

Points stay, team ratings do not.
 
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