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[Angry Grimace]

Man, you guys were right about the awesomeness of questing in Northrend. Everything seems to run together very nicely and it gives you a sense of linearity, but definitely not holding you to a certain chain. The environs are nice and I have really eaten up the lore so far. Evidence: I've got the lore achievements for both Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord!

Will probably ding 75 when I get on later tonight. Is everything from here on just as engrossing? I plan on going for Loremaster in at least Northrend. I may be crazy enough to try for the overall achievement and title later. :lol I'm still way too casual to jump into endgame at this point. That's probably why I'm planning on uber-questing from here on out. Anyone want to convince me that this is a bad idea?

I personally don't think it gets better after HF and BT. Mostly because, I avoid Zul'drak like the plague, Dragonblight is depressing and Grizzly Hills is too similar to HF.

However, I'd suggest using Grizzly Hills to get to 75-76 and then hitting up Sholazar, before you get your Flight and head for Storm Peaks/Icecrown (do the long Sons of Hodir chain in the Storm Peaks at the very least.)

 

[jim-jam bongs]

Turns out it's pretty easy to make avatars from the new Armory. I settled on kissing dwarf in the end.

Why would I want to see all of the generic animations for someone's character anyway?

Gee, I wonder if this male orc is going to have a different dance from all the other male orcs? Oh, nope....same dance again.

This can only herald the arrival of the fabled WoW DANCE STUDIO.

TESTIFY!

 

[Angry Grimace]

Do you have a link that has an overview of the fight and possibly a video?

I doubt one exists other than a PTR kill video...all her abilities are datamined in advance though. Beware, any PTR video *will*, I assure you have the requisite bad techno that WoW kill videos always have.


* Shroud of Sorrow - Inflicts 4,500 Shadow damage to all players every 3 seconds. Permanent aura.
* Presence of the Darkfallen - Increases the damage of Shroud of Sorrow by 5% for every vampyr in the room.
* Delirious Slash - Inflicts 50% weapon damage to the tank, and causes them to bleed for an additional 4,500 to 5,500 (25-player: 5,250 to 6,750) every 3 seconds for 15 seconds.
* Blood Mirror & Blood Mirror - Causes the player closest to the tank to take 100% of the damage done to tank as Shadow damage.
* Vampiric Bite - Inflicts 12,025 to 13,975 (25-player: 13,875 to 16,125) Physical damage to a target, granting them Essence of the Blood Queen.
1. Essence of the Blood Queen - Increases damage by 100%, and causes attacks to heal the player for 15% of the damage done, as well as cause no threat. Causes Frenzied Bloodthirst after 60 seconds.
* Frenzied Bloodthirst - Causes Uncontrollable Frenzy after 10 (15?) seconds, giving Lana'thel control over the target, unless the player bites a friendly target. Biting another player refreshes the duration of Essence of the Blood Queen to 60 seconds, and also grants the debuff to the bitten player.
* Pact of the Darkfallen - Links a number of players together, causing them to inflict 3,500 Shadow damage every 1 second to non-linked players within 10 yards. This effect expires when all linked targets are within 5 yards of each other.
* Swarming Shadows - The affected player spawns a mass of shadows every 1 second for 6 seconds. Each mass inflicts 2,313 to 2,687 (25-player: 2,775 to 3,225 ) Shadow damage every 1 second to all targets within it.
* Twilight Bloodbolt - Inflicts 9,250 to 10,750 (25-player: 12,025 to 13,975) Shadow damage to a target and other players within 6 yards.

"The majority of the fight is spent in the land phase 1, interrupted occasionally by healing intensive phase 2. During the land phase, you will want a few things kept in check. Two tanks will have to swap on the boss, so they don't get overwhelmed by the bleed from Delirious Slash. The tanks will also have to be close to each other - the OT needs to be the closest player to the MT, so they soak the damage transferred through Blood Mirror. Other players will want to be relatively spread out (at 6-10 yards range), but still close enough to be able to run to each other quickly when Pact of the Darkfallen happens. Run out of the mandatory void zones Swarming Shadows, of course.

The trick to the fight is to not run out of people to bite as a vampire. Since Lana'thel will bite a player every 20-30 seconds or so, and those players will need to bite somebody after a minute, you may find yourself running out of people very soon. Do not risk and wait to bite another player though, as a single person gone frenzy can and will wipe the raid. Keep in mind, biting requires melee range with the target.

Phase 2 lasts only a few seconds and is preceded by the spawning of a few Blood Whirls throughout the room. Make note of them and spread out so you are at least 6 yards away from each other. Healers will have to heal through the high damage the raids will take, and then phase 1 will re-start."

Basically, in a nutshell, the real trick to this encounter looks to be the fact that you have to bite a non-vampire every 60 seconds, and she bites a new person every 30 seconds or so; meaning, you will run out of fresh bites within something like 4 minutes. As biting someone does not remove Essence of the Blood Queen, near the end of this chain it probably starts to get really crazy, since once you have more than 13 (6 on 10m) people with the debuff you only have 60 seconds to kill the Queen before one or more people will be MC'd and likely wipe your whole raid.

All the while, you have to be spread out to avoid chaining the shadow spells, healing through increasing damage from her shadow aura and collapsing in to avoid taking Soullink damage. It looks like hell on wheels :lol

 

[sykoex]

As a ret paladin, should I be using Seal of Righteousness? And if so, in what situations?

Right now, I use Seal of Vengeance for long boss fights and Seal of Command for anything that dies fast (trash). But on some forums I see people downplaying Seal of Command and some ret builds not even speccing for it at all.

 

[Angry Grimace]

As a ret paladin, should I be using Seal of Righteousness? And if so, in what situations?

Right now, I use Seal of Vengeance for long boss fights and Seal of Command for anything that dies fast (trash). But on some forums I see people downplaying Seal of Command and some ret builds not even speccing for it at all.

I don't see why you'd spec out of SoComm, there literally aren't any useful things to spec into with the extra point.

It's just a bunch of junky utility talents and SoComm does very good damage on trash due to its cleave.

 

[keeblerdrow]

Keep SoComm, don't glyph it. The rule for ret right now is ask yourself two yes or no questions:

Are there multiple mobs in the pull(s)?
If yes, Seal of Command

If no, will the mob die in less than 20 seconds?
If yes, Seal of Righteousness

If no, Seal of Corruption/Vengeance

 

[Tamanon]

Goddamn, Rotface in 10-man is whoopin' our ass. We finally had an attempt where we made it through the first ooze explosion without a death and it just went balls up immediately afterwards. That's going to take a while to conquer.:lol

And it certainly wasn't a gear issue, because after a couple hours of wiping we did a 25 minute clear of ToC10 and downed Sarth 3D again.:lol

 

[Dunlop]

Man, you guys were right about the awesomeness of questing in Northrend. Everything seems to run together very nicely and it gives you a sense of linearity, but definitely not holding you to a certain chain. The environs are nice and I have really eaten up the lore so far. Evidence: I've got the lore achievements for both Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord!

At the rate I am lvling in BC, I should be there in an hour....I spent most of last night playing with my interface and still managed to do half a lvl between 62 and 63.

My buddy is joining via RAF,

I main will always be my priest as I put a lot of time and had some great memories back in Vanilla WOW. I think I will weep when I find a weapon that is better and I have to replace Benediction/Anethema

I was initially going to do a BE Pally to lvl with him, but I got kind of burnt out after levelling my Iron Breaker in Warhammer...I'm leaning towards a Druid, are the viable in End game or at least groups in general. My days of ever being a MT are over, but I want a character that is usefull to a group. My druid stalled at lvl 9 because it was so damn painful to lvl, but now at 6x the xp rate plus free lvls I could get past the hump easily.



Seriously all I ever see as a tank in the 6 or so dungeons runs I have done are Death Knights.

 

[Flib]

Druids are great endgame, amazing healers and really good tanks (I'd say probably second best right now). Also really easy to gear up since they're automatically defense capped through talents.

I'd had a level 30 druid for a while, and really disliked it, but for some reason decided to power through a bit. Currently level 57, absolutely in love with the class (I'm feral/resto), and will probably make it my main over my hunter when I get him to 80.

 

[Milpool]

Ugh, this new dungeon finder needs some work, tank just bailed on HoR as soon as he got the cape he wanted, and along came the next wave.

 

[funkmastergeneral]

Ugh, I hate these attempt limits on Putricide. My 10 man group finally got into a good rhythm with smooth transitions through phases without slimes, and then have a 4% wipe on our last try. My favorite part of WoW is learning new fights and having a "wipe night" to do so, this really sucks. Always next week I guess, but I doubt people are going to want to use our attempts on Putricide when there is a new boss up to use them on.

 

[LAUGHTREY]

My group 1 shot everything in 10 man ICC this week, I don't hold the same hopes for our 25 man though.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

Ugh, this new dungeon finder needs some work, tank just bailed on HoR as soon as he got the cape he wanted, and along came the next wave.

Nothing stops you from leaving too.

You can't force people to stay.

 

[Dunlop]

Druids are great endgame, amazing healers and really good tanks (I'd say probably second best right now). Also really easy to gear up since they're automatically defense capped through talents.

I'd had a level 30 druid for a while, and really disliked it, but for some reason decided to power through a bit. Currently level 57, absolutely in love with the class (I'm feral/resto), and will probably make it my main over my hunter when I get him to 80.

Thanks for the info, my buddy is a power gamer and I see him being lvl 60 before the 90 days is up so I should have a good 30 lvls to spend ; )

Plus we will be mostly grouping together and getting the 3x, as long as Warlocks are still the facemelters they were back in the day it should be a good combo

Ugh, this new dungeon finder needs some work, tank just bailed on HoR as soon as he got the cape he wanted, and along came the next wave.

I love the Dungeon finder (it is the biggest reason I resubbed) but I also find I dislike it.

It's great how quick you form but it is really "wham bam thank you mam", nobody speaks and they just push through it, definately disorienting when you have never run it, been away from the game for years and are the only healer

At least when you used to have to form up there was a lot of communication and social interaction. It will be less painful when I lose my noob status and start to look for a guild

 

[Milpool]

I love it too Dunlop, probably the best thing to happen to WoW.

Nothing stops you from leaving too.

You can't force people to stay.

I know I can leave, it's just nice to be given more options than leave or die. The instance should pause under certain circumstances/something better than a 15 minute debuff to deter people from leaving/won loot could be dished out at after the last boss, etc.

 

[joelseph]

My group 1 shot everything in 10 man ICC this week, I don't hold the same hopes for our 25 man though.

You guys 1 shotted the plaguewing and you are worried about wiping in 25? Strange.

 

[KernelPanic]

I respec'd my druid resto, I couldn't stand bear tanking, annoying to hold aggro on more than 2 targets. They still have impressive health, but I just think paladin's make the best tanks, so easy to grab a bunch of mobs and hold aggro. About as stress free as tanking can be, HoR is cake with a pally.

Every time I try healing a bear tank in H HoR it's a wipe, although I'm relatively new to resto. Tried last night on a 50K bear tank and no matter what I tossed on him his health would keep going down. We're talking rejuv, regrowth, rejuv glyph, lifebloom ticking away, living seed the works. I prolly need to reglyph for nourish not regrowth though.

Of course it would help if the rest of the group would stop getting hit, no idea why everyone's health would keep dropping to 50% and below all of a sudden.

The LFG tool is awesome. I generally run the silent groups since I just want my 2 frost emblems although some ppl are quite friendly and chatty. I haven't seen too many a-holes.

It's annoying when people keep telling you to go go and try and speed-run the instance (like finishing a few minutes sooner is a big deal), although most people are so over-geared for the older heroics that's its understandable.

They should make the 5-mans scale to the average gear level to the group or something. There's no challenge at all.

 

[Yaweee]

I'm probably done with WoW, at least for a while. The last week or so have gotten me thinking that the game just isn't worth the time right now. Most of this is probably just whiny bitching.


As a relatively fresh Elemental Shaman (WH 2840, hit 80 the night before 3.3), my peak dps is among the lowest in the game, and if I do anything other than the FS,LvB,LB (+CL) rotation my DPS suffers tremendously. However, that doesn't prevent people from giving me shit over my dps. It's probably just the people I have to run with - PUGs that set arbitrary benchmarks to get loot or get kicked and friends that won't fucking shut up about where I am on the meters.

And if I stop playing for a few weeks, or until 4.0/Cataclysm, what do I lose? It's not like there's much of a point for an elemental shaman to even bother with ICC10. There are Elem Pants from Putricide... which my guild pussied out from trying and is now on pace to do again this week. The Blood Wing has a single ring that might be good for an Elemental Shaman, a six-level upgrade from my Onyxia ring. Several bosses have literally nothing I'd be allowed to roll on unless it is a hand-me-down cloth or mana-regen weapon. And as everybody else is gearing up, Elemental Shamans are falling even further behind by not getting loot, getting loot with worthless stats (Spirit, MP5, or resilience), or getting stuff with questionable set bonuses.

Maybe when the next minor patch, the Dragon Wing, and the new VoA boss are out I might come back (3 weeks?) I could stick around doing dailies for Frost Emblem, but I'd rather be one ICC behind pace than have to log in everyday.

tl;dr, I should have transferred my rogue to horde instead.

 

[joelseph]

Elemental Shamans are in a bad spot right now, hang in there buddy.

 

[Yaweee]

Elemental Shamans are in a bad spot right now, hang in there buddy.

=(

It really does suck. I had five level 70+ characters I could have race/server transferred to where I am now, and my friends said nothing about the current state of Elementals.

=(

 

[funkmastergeneral]

I'm probably done with WoW, at least for a while. The last week or so have gotten me thinking that the game just isn't worth the time right now. Most of this is probably just whiny bitching.


As a relatively fresh Elemental Shaman (WH 2840, hit 80 the night before 3.3), my peak dps is among the lowest in the game, and if I do anything other than the FS,LvB,LB (+CL) rotation my DPS suffers tremendously. However, that doesn't prevent people from giving me shit over my dps. It's probably just the people I have to run with - PUGs that set arbitrary benchmarks to get loot or get kicked and friends that won't fucking shut up about where I am on the meters.

And if I stop playing for a few weeks, or until 4.0/Cataclysm, what do I lose? It's not like there's much of a point for an elemental shaman to even bother with ICC10. There are Elem Pants from Putricide... which my guild pussied out from trying and is now on pace to do again this week. The Blood Wing has a single ring that might be good for an Elemental Shaman, a six-level upgrade from my Onyxia ring. Several bosses have literally nothing I'd be allowed to roll on unless it is a hand-me-down cloth or mana-regen weapon. And as everybody else is gearing up, Elemental Shamans are falling even further behind by not getting loot, getting loot with worthless stats (Spirit, MP5, or resilience), or getting stuff with questionable set bonuses.

Maybe when the next minor patch, the Dragon Wing, and the new VoA boss are out I might come back (3 weeks?) I could stick around doing dailies for Frost Emblem, but I'd rather be one ICC behind pace than have to log in everyday.

tl;dr, I should have transferred my rogue to horde instead.

Go Enhance. Our DPS isn't the best but I can hold my own with most hybrid dps in raids, and itemization and stat scaling are much better

 

[Yaweee]

Go Enhance. Our DPS isn't the best but I can hold my own with most hybrid dps in raids, and itemization and stat scaling are much better

My gear is considerably worse at this point, after having bought two pieces of T10 Elemental already. I know the crowd here don't like Wow-Heroes, but would a 2650~2700 Enhancement Shaman do damage on par with a 2840 Elemental? I fear that it just might be too late to switch effectively and still do ICC.

What do I need to know about what DPS gear to get?

- Most have Agility, but Strength is generally better?
- Fuck Armor Pen and Expertise?
- Do I need any of the more complicated stats, or do I just spam the AP, crit, and haste? What is the priority for gems and enchants for those stats?
- Slow weapons are ALWAYS better, or is there a tradeoff where a higher level fast weapon might be better?

Most of my gear (except for a ring and trinket, and chest) is 219 or 232, with a 245 dagger (which is 1.6 speed, which is universally bad?)

I wish Elitist Jerks was better at locking old threads. I don't fucking care about 3.1 and 3.2 calculations any more, but they muck up the same threads and make it harder to find the goods.

SUPER EDIT:

And if it isn't too much trouble, what Glyphs and Rotation should I use?

 

[KernelPanic]

Go Enhance. Our DPS isn't the best but I can hold my own with most hybrid dps in raids, and itemization and stat scaling are much better

If it wasn't such a long wait for DPS I'd play my shaman more. Is itemization better ?, I mostly see hunter gear with ArP out there.

The Axe and Fist Weapons always drop when I'm on my other toons in the new instances

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

It's great how quick you form but it is really "wham bam thank you mam", nobody speaks and they just push through it, definately disorienting when you have never run it, been away from the game for years and are the only healer

I never really understood this. What is there to talk about with complete strangers on different realms?

Often I see people ask "hey guys, what's up?" and I'm thinking "I'm playing fucking World of Warcraft, what do you think?"

 

[funkmastergeneral]

My gear is considerably worse at this point, after having bought two pieces of T10 Elemental already. I know the crowd here don't like Wow-Heroes, but would a 2650~2700 Enhancement Shaman do damage on par with a 2840 Elemental? I fear that it just might be too late to switch effectively and still do ICC.

Definitely not too late. Frost emblems will be flowing soon enough, and you can easily grind out good enough gear with Triumph Emblems. Really anything is better than elemental right now, except maybe a sub rogue:lol The only piece you won't be able to get with emblems is weapons, but you still have options.

If it wasn't such a long wait for DPS I'd play my shaman more. Is itemization better ?, I mostly see hunter gear with ArP out there.

The Axe and Fist Weapons always drop when I'm on my other toons in the new instances

The itemization for enhance is leaps and bounds better then elemental. Elemental is in a really rough state where Blizz doesn't want to create armor solely for one spec of one class, despite the fact that they do this for Holy paladins. It's just Shamans getting shit upon once again. ArP is not a horrible stat for enhance. I do try to shy away from it, but it inevitably shows up on some of my gear. And to be honest, with my high amount of crit at the moment (about 43.6%) unbuffed, armor pen is almost as good a stat as crit.

 

[joelseph]

I never really understood this. What is there to talk about with complete strangers on different realms?

Often I see people ask "hey guys, what's up?" and I'm thinking "I'm playing fucking World of Warcraft, what do you think?"

The other night I was doing my daily and had some dude obviously dual boxing two arms warriors. He kept just talking and talking on both toons like he was funny or something yet no one else ever responded. The entire time, he would say something on one toon and then respond to himself on the other. Kids are strange.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I'm probably done with WoW, at least for a while. The last week or so have gotten me thinking that the game just isn't worth the time right now. Most of this is probably just whiny bitching.


As a relatively fresh Elemental Shaman (WH 2840, hit 80 the night before 3.3), my peak dps is among the lowest in the game, and if I do anything other than the FS,LvB,LB (+CL) rotation my DPS suffers tremendously. However, that doesn't prevent people from giving me shit over my dps. It's probably just the people I have to run with - PUGs that set arbitrary benchmarks to get loot or get kicked and friends that won't fucking shut up about where I am on the meters.

And if I stop playing for a few weeks, or until 4.0/Cataclysm, what do I lose? It's not like there's much of a point for an elemental shaman to even bother with ICC10. There are Elem Pants from Putricide... which my guild pussied out from trying and is now on pace to do again this week. The Blood Wing has a single ring that might be good for an Elemental Shaman, a six-level upgrade from my Onyxia ring. Several bosses have literally nothing I'd be allowed to roll on unless it is a hand-me-down cloth or mana-regen weapon. And as everybody else is gearing up, Elemental Shamans are falling even further behind by not getting loot, getting loot with worthless stats (Spirit, MP5, or resilience), or getting stuff with questionable set bonuses.

Maybe when the next minor patch, the Dragon Wing, and the new VoA boss are out I might come back (3 weeks?) I could stick around doing dailies for Frost Emblem, but I'd rather be one ICC behind pace than have to log in everyday.

tl;dr, I should have transferred my rogue to horde instead.

I've literally never seen anyone complain about DPS in a heroic, and I've never done anything like that when tanking either. I remember when I ran through all this content this with the highest dps at 1500, and I also remember when people didn't give me shit for tanking heroics with a 2800 gear score either.

You might have to consider going Enhance if you want to do competitive DPS, unfortunately. Elemental is pretty much bottom of the barrel right now from what I hear (the lowest DPS in our 10 man group is certainly a Elemental Shaman that I know isn't terrible). Edit: obviously beaten :lol

For the DK's out there; I have to say, dual wield Frost DPS is probably the most fun spec in WoW :lol. It's awesome. Unfortunately, it's DPS, while coming very close to my Unholy spec, is pretty spiky. Sometimes you get 3 Killing Machine procs in 15 seconds, and sometimes you don't get any. Of course, my Frost Spec has a 251 MH and a 232 OH, and my 2H weapon is a 251.

 

[Dunlop]

I never really understood this. What is there to talk about with complete strangers on different realms?

Often I see people ask "hey guys, what's up?" and I'm thinking "I'm playing fucking World of Warcraft, what do you think?"

Different strokes for different folks, there is nothing wrong with your logic but for me the advantage of an MMO is the ability to socially interact with others. I've met some great people online over the years. Otherwise I might as well play Dragon Age and save the monthly subs.

But my point is nothing is said, no party check before fighting a boss, or whatever. The dungeon runs so far have been a very sterile experience. But again, I have been back a whole 2 days so I am not passing judgment, rather my own oberservations.

 

[Epix]

It'd be nice if you could leave the random dungeon after someone has already bailed and avoid the debuff.

 

[FLEABttn]

The dungeon runs so far have been a very sterile experience.

They will continue to be. People have been running these for a year now and only do them at this point for the badges they provide. I think few people "want" to run them, and feel more like they need to.

I want to get in and get out with my badges as fast as possible. People who want to converse hinder that, and will be disregarded unless something interesting, needed, or funny is said. "Hai guys, how's your day?" is a quick way for my eyes to gloss over everytime I see that persons name next to some text.

 

[Angry Grimace]

They will continue to be. People have been running these for a year now and only do them at this point for the badges they provide. I think few people "want" to run them, and feel more like they need to.

I want to get in and get out with my badges as fast as possible. People who want to converse hinder that, and will be disregarded unless something interesting, needed, or funny is said. "Hai guys, how's your day?" is a quick way for my eyes to gloss over everytime I see that persons name next to some text.

Well yeah, heroics are literally just group farming at this point, barely any different than taking laps around Icecrown for Saronite.

 

[Dunlop]

They will continue to be. People have been running these for a year now and only do them at this point for the badges they provide. I think few people "want" to run them, and feel more like they need to.

I want to get in and get out with my badges as fast as possible. People who want to converse hinder that, and will be disregarded unless something interesting, needed, or funny is said. "Hai guys, how's your day?" is a quick way for my eyes to gloss over everytime I see that persons name next to some text.

make sense, maybe they need to add a conversation? filter to the LFG engine

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

More realistically, it would be an "Awkward Small Talk Welcomed" filter.

I like talking and joking with realm and guild mates, but talking to realm strangers in a badge farming group is the worst.

 

[joelseph]

just wanted to add my own sob-story to the thread: Another week down and still no Sollace. /cry

 

[Bisnic]

Different strokes for different folks, there is nothing wrong with your logic but for me the advantage of an MMO is the ability to socially interact with others. I've met some great people online over the years. Otherwise I might as well play Dragon Age and save the monthly subs.

But my point is nothing is said, no party check before fighting a boss, or whatever. The dungeon runs so far have been a very sterile experience. But again, I have been back a whole 2 days so I am not passing judgment, rather my own oberservations.

I've done plenty of runs with my low lvl priest(now 62) since the Dungeon Finder went live.
It seems people are more social at low lvl instances than the lvl 80 heroics.
I guess the fact that you don't do them as much as lvl 80 heroics anymore(thus, less boring for some people), and that they're usually much longer to complete, kinda help.

 

[Entropia]

I'm probably done with WoW, at least for a while. The last week or so have gotten me thinking that the game just isn't worth the time right now. Most of this is probably just whiny bitching.


As a relatively fresh Elemental Shaman (WH 2840, hit 80 the night before 3.3), my peak dps is among the lowest in the game, and if I do anything other than the FS,LvB,LB (+CL) rotation my DPS suffers tremendously. However, that doesn't prevent people from giving me shit over my dps. It's probably just the people I have to run with - PUGs that set arbitrary benchmarks to get loot or get kicked and friends that won't fucking shut up about where I am on the meters.

And if I stop playing for a few weeks, or until 4.0/Cataclysm, what do I lose? It's not like there's much of a point for an elemental shaman to even bother with ICC10. There are Elem Pants from Putricide... which my guild pussied out from trying and is now on pace to do again this week. The Blood Wing has a single ring that might be good for an Elemental Shaman, a six-level upgrade from my Onyxia ring. Several bosses have literally nothing I'd be allowed to roll on unless it is a hand-me-down cloth or mana-regen weapon. And as everybody else is gearing up, Elemental Shamans are falling even further behind by not getting loot, getting loot with worthless stats (Spirit, MP5, or resilience), or getting stuff with questionable set bonuses.

Maybe when the next minor patch, the Dragon Wing, and the new VoA boss are out I might come back (3 weeks?) I could stick around doing dailies for Frost Emblem, but I'd rather be one ICC behind pace than have to log in everyday.

tl;dr, I should have transferred my rogue to horde instead.

Yeah, I'm feeling the same way. Ele Shaman always have poor scaling issues. The problem is Blizzard doesn't want to make too much Ele Shaman specific items because we'd be the only ones that can use them. A resto Shaman doesn't need hit pieces, etc.

 

[funkmastergeneral]

Yeah, I'm feeling the same way. Ele Shaman always have poor scaling issues. The problem is Blizzard doesn't want to make too much Ele Shaman specific items because we'd be the only ones that can use them. A resto Shaman doesn't need hit pieces, etc.

Which is bullshit, considering things like physical dps daggers and spell power plate are only usefull for 1 class.

 

[Tamanon]

Which is bullshit, considering things like physical dps daggers and spell power plate are only usefull for 1 class.

Technically, physical daggers can be useful to hunters also in place of polearms!

The problem is that Blizzard doesn't want to make elemental AND resto mail gear. With Paladins, they only need one time of spell gear. I think by making spirit instead of mp5 in Cataclysm they'll be able to make it a bit easier to make gear that works for both specs.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I know Blizzard hates just "increasing damage" due to scaling, but given that this is the last tier in Wrath, they should just make Elemental do more damage.

 

[Tamanon]

They're probably just trying to figure out how. I mean they did just announce the flat-out damage buffs to Warlocks and Moonkin.

 

[Wrekt]

Last night I was healing random heroics for badges. I got my usual shitfest of VH/Oculus/Gundrak when suddenly a HoR popped. Holy crap I finally got a ICC for a random! I know I can manually select the ICC zones but I'd rather have the random badges. There are only 2 pieces I need out of the ICC 5 mans and they never drop anyway.

Then I notice the tank is a 28k hp DK. We start the event and do alright for the first few pulls. Though there are lots of close calls, we make it to the first boss and kill him. Up to this point all of the CC are around 2k each and that is while spamming AoE, pulling agro and of course avoiding CC abilities like it will delete a piece of gear every time they use one. The only CC we get is my Turn Evil on the pull. Well we get about 4 waves into the 2nd boss and wipe.

We rez up and I recommend using Freezing Trap and maybe a stunlock on the mercs. The hunter literally recommends that I find a different type of water and we are wiping because I'm running out of mana keeping him alive while a merc pounds on him. I'm using mage food from a conjured table.

They continue spamming volley and fan of knives and we wipe again. The tank leaves and suddenly I get a "you have been removed from the group" message. 2 weeks of ICC drought for my random groups and I get stuck with some fuckwits that are incapable of realizing that there is more to that zone than slamming on AE attacks. If you are all in raid gear, go for it. If the tank still has ungemmed ilvl 200 shit... Not so much.

 

[border]

Ugh, this new dungeon finder needs some work, tank just bailed on HoR as soon as he got the cape he wanted, and along came the next wave.

This isn't a problem with the Dungeon Finder, it's a problem with HoR being a pretty awful instance for any non-pally tank.

 

[Milpool]

This isn't a problem with the Dungeon Finder, it's a problem with HoR being a pretty awful instance for any non-pally tank.

Ran it with both DK and Warrior tanks, seemed pretty trivial though my CC was appreciated. I admit it's only a real problem in instanced with waves.

 

[Sciz]

Yeah, I'm feeling the same way. Ele Shaman always have poor scaling issues. The problem is Blizzard doesn't want to make too much Ele Shaman specific items because we'd be the only ones that can use them. A resto Shaman doesn't need hit pieces, etc.

They could dump all the hit on tier and itemize the offset stuff as haste/crit and everyone would be happy, but they don't because they feel like it would be "boring", despite the fact that the only alternatives are completely worthless stats.

The problem is that Blizzard doesn't want to make elemental AND resto mail gear. With Paladins, they only need one time of spell gear. I think by making spirit instead of mp5 in Cataclysm they'll be able to make it a bit easier to make gear that works for both specs.

Spirit is becoming a healer-only stat, last I read. I don't see them retrofitting it into elemental when we're currently the only dps casters who don't use it.

I know Blizzard hates just "increasing damage" due to scaling, but given that this is the last tier in Wrath, they should just make Elemental do more damage.

They'll probably do some sort of band-aid buff like they have every other tier so far in Wrath, but nothing substantial.

-They can't buff Lightning Bolt more because it'll replace Lava Burst entirely, and they don't want that because it would mean admitting that LvB wasn't thought out well in the slightest.
-They can't buff Lava Burst because they'll hear every other spec in the game complain about getting instagibbed through 1200 resilience.
-They can't really do anything to the dps totems because their mechanics are broken in the first place.

They could buff Flame Shock again, but they already did that in 3.2.

The T10 set bonuses are still lousy, while we're on the subject.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Spirit is becoming a healer-only stat, last I read. I don't see them retrofitting it into elemental when we're currently the only dps casters who don't use it.

Yeah, I think the plan is that Paladins and Shamans will have to use Spirit when they heal.

 

[Entropia]

A change to ToW needs to be made. Currently, we're mostly brought in for that alone. I haven't run with a Demo Lock in awhile so Demonic Pact is very rare, but if that's brought in what do we do? Lay Searing Totem, sure that helps our DPS but it certainly wouldn't make us competitive.

Proposed changes:
1) Make ToW scale ala Demonic Pact. Either make it a flat bonus that scales with Spell Power, or whenever we crit with Lava Burst we get an increase in Spell Power on top of ToW based on 5% of the Shaman's Spell Power. The latter making the most sense to keep it consistent with how Demonic Pact works.

Math:
My Shaman has 2880 Spell Power + 280 from ToW, with a lava burst crit, the raid gets a buff called "Wrath of the Elements"
2880+280(ToW) + 273(3/3 Elemental Weapons Flametongue Weapon) = 3433
3433 * 0.05 = 172 additional spell power for the raid

This value of course does not reflect buffs from: food, flasks and trinkets.

2) Instead of a flat increase in spell power from Flametongue weapon, make it percent based. Currently, (talented - Elemental Weapons) you get 274 spell power from flametongue.
Proposed change:
Base: Flametongue grants 9% increase in spell power
Talent increases that percentage increase by 1%, 2%, and 3%. Therefore, 10%, 11% and 12% increase.

My Shaman currently has 2880 SP unbuffed, with flametongue: 3153
With propose change:
Spell power with untalented Flametongue: 3139 - roughly on par what it is now.
1/3 Elemental weapons: 10% increase, 3168
2/3 Elemental Weapons: 11% increase, 3196
3/3 Elemental Weapons: 12% increase, 3225

That would give me a 72 spell power increase. This would alleviate any future issues with Shaman scaling.


Now let's factor in ToW.
Current Flametongue + ToW + my current Spell Power: 273 + 280 + 2880 = 3433
Assuming unglyphed ToW
ToW + currnet SP = 3160

New Spell power values:
ToW + Flametongue(untalented) = 3444
ToW + Flametongue (1/3) = 3476
Tow + Flametongue (2/3) = 3507
ToW + Flametongue (3/3) = 3539

Total Spell Power gain: 3539 - 3433 = 106

 

[MrPing1000]

Prof Prutricide is a tricky customer. the 10 wipe lockout is a huge bitch.

My guild managed to get him to 25% on our 9th attempt, full health ooze at phase changed screwed us. I'm Festergut pilot, took me a while to get into the swing of it, but fine now. Took me 7 tries to know i could move as a drank the potion :lol

Oh well, next week maybe.

 

[Yaweee]

They'll probably do some sort of band-aid buff like they have every other tier so far in Wrath, but nothing substantial.

-They can't buff Lightning Bolt more because it'll replace Lava Burst entirely, and they don't want that because it would mean admitting that LvB wasn't thought out well in the slightest.
-They can't buff Lava Burst because they'll hear every other spec in the game complain about getting instagibbed through 1200 resilience.
-They can't really do anything to the dps totems because their mechanics are broken in the first place.

They could buff Flame Shock again, but they already did that in 3.2.

The T10 set bonuses are still lousy, while we're on the subject.

The best solutions I saw were to either incorporate the Totem(s) of Wrath talent to emanate from all Fire Totems, so buffing other people doesn't lower our dps by 1k, or to double the effectiveness of Totem of Wrath given to the Shaman much like they are planning for the Demo buff.

 

[Bisnic]

This isn't a problem with the Dungeon Finder, it's a problem with HoR being a pretty awful instance for any non-pally tank.

I don't even bother tanking it with my warrior anymore. I have to do all the damn work in the spirits waves part. People are too dumb to hide in that little corner behind the pillar of one of the 2 rooms to let the mages and riflemen come into range so i'm stuck on using Heroic Throw on the mage(if it's not on cooldown because of last wave) or moving to taunt the riflemen and hide again, i can't see shit when im hiding there and no one except me bother to interrupt the casters. And if i miss a spirit with my first Thunderclap, it's even more annoying.

 

[Sciz]

The best solutions I saw were to either incorporate the Totem(s) of Wrath talent to emanate from all Fire Totems, so buffing other people doesn't lower our dps by 1k, or to double the effectiveness of Totem of Wrath given to the Shaman much like they are planning for the Demo buff.

Both of which are decent solutions, though I don't think they're ever going to do the first one since they seem to like the idea of there being a tradeoff between raid buffing and personal dps. The second one also probably won't happen yet simply because they're dragging their heels about getting ToW up to DP's level in the first place (because Demo locks are holding it up as the only reason they're getting raid invites, which may be true).

I'll be surprised if they touch totems at all; they aren't going to work on one out of searing, magma, and wrath without working on all three, and that isn't happening outside of the Cataclysm dev team.