Starting to tank is scary. During BC I leveled from 40 through 69 as a Balance Druid, and then discovered that a tank couldn't be pugged for love or money once you hit the later portion of Outland on my realm. I'd picked up some feral gear along the way and decided to give tanking a shot, but then spent my first afternoon in the trenches being a nervous wreck after losing aggro to impatient DPS, aggroing extra mobs by charging into pulls instead of LOSing them, and taking a ridiculous amount of damage. The feeling of being constantly judged by your group members isn't a pleasant sensation, but more maddening was the knowledge that certain things beyond your control -- mob stuns, lazy or trigger-happy DPS, an inattentive healer, or something as simple as a missed Mangle -- could make you look worse than you actually were.
That's why I like a recent blog post by our own Big Bear Butt on "Tips for the New Tank," which addresses not only that but also a number of pitfalls to which new tanks are prone. I particularly agree with his assertion that you should never start a boss event assuming that everyone in the group is on the same page, because someone who's not sure what they're doing can and often will cause issues for you without realizing it. It's a great guide for a new tank that gives a nod to the "feeling judged" syndrome mentioned here, and with so many players returning to their tanking trees or trying Death Knights in Wrath, I recommend it for anyone interested in the job.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Guide: BBB's tips for a new tank
Monday, April 20, 2009
The OverAchiever: Starting Glory of the Hero
When I look at the Dalaran landing pad, I see fewer red proto-drakes than I should be. This pains me, dear readers. The 5-man heroic achievements are a lot of fun, if admittedly time consuming, and they force you to think on your feet and wring the most out of your character's abilities. Plus - it's a proto-drake. If you didn't get a 10-man or 25-man drake before 3.1 hit, you're out of luck there. Odds are good that you're still waiting for a green one to hatch out of the worthless egg that snake-oil salesman from the Oracles sells you, some jerk is camping the Time-Lost spawn 24/7, and the worst DPS in your Pinnacle PuG was the guy who won the blue drake off of Skadi, right right?
A lot of the WoW population has been at 80 for a while now and has some quality gear under their belts, much of it obtainable without setting foot in a raid. You should be able to pull off all of the 5-man heroic achievements in decent blues with a good group. I highly recommend trying to run with a stable set of players and -- if at all possible -- at least one Shaman. This is more true if your group is still gearing up and needs the damage boost provided by Bloodlust/Heroism.
I thought initially about organizing these from the easiest to the hardest, but I think it's ultimately less confusing to list them dungeon by dungeon. We'll address each dungeon alphabetically, so let's get started with Ahn'kahet:
As a quick note, these guides are being written from the perspective of a player who is usually playing a Druid tank (and occasionally healer). I'll try to point out if I know of alternate strategies for different groups or tanks, but I certainly don't know them all. If there's a strategy you've successfully managed that I don't mention here, please drop a note in the comments.
AHN'KAHET: THE OLD KINGDOM
This is one of the harder heroics overall, but the achievements here range from very easy to fairly difficult. As such, it's a good heroic to use as a diagnostic tool; the individual achievements here will allow you to figure out if you've got the tank quality, healing throughput, and DPS firepower to get through the meta-achievement. If you can manage all of the achievements here, you should be able to manage everything else.
A Bloodlust will help a lot on the final boss and, depending on your group composition, may also help on the first.
Respect Your Elders
As you're probably aware by now, the Ahn'kahar Guardians which spawn periodically during this encounter render the boss and his titchy little adds immune to all damage. Ordinarily you handle this by killing the Guardian (they have about 35K health) and then going back to DPSing the boss and AoEing the adds, but here you're going to have to come up with a way of keeping the Guardians occupied elsewhere. The immunity effect is canceled once you get them out of range, which I believe is roughly 40-50 yards. You know the somewhat elongated room in which you'll find Nadox? Its length is a rough guide to the distance you need to maintain between Nadox and the Guardians in order to keep the latter from granting the former total immunity.
You'll need:
Tank
Off-tank (DPS DK, Warrior, or Paladin is fine)
Healer
Off-healer if needed (hybrid DPS is fine)
DPS
If your tank is very well-geared, you can usually pull this off without an offhealer. I've also had a group successfully use DPS Shamans as Guardian tanks here, but any sufficiently hardy class that can heal itself could probably manage it. Most strategies suggest having your off-tank pick up Nadox and your real tank pick up the Guardians because Nadox's melee is very weak but damage from the Guardians really starts adding up.
Now, I used to do this all in Nadox's room, but commenters in the Wowhead thread on this achievement noted a much better way to do it that I'll be using in the future. As you clear to the boss, take the path to your left, and clear all of the trash you find in the hallway immediately preceding Nadox's room. Have your off-tank aggro him, pull him out of the room down the stairs to the left, and tank him at the farthest end of the hallway you just cleared (if this doesn't make any sense, the commenter Caylie on the Wowhead thread provides pictures). Your DPS and healer stay here as well and just nuke down the boss. If you're situated correctly, Nadox will never go immune.
Your real tank will sit at the stairs and wait for Guardians to hatch. Because they'll make a beeline for your healer, they'll head down the stairs toward Nadox and you can pick them up very easily and keep them tanked here. You may need an off-healer to toss you a few heals because you will be well out of range of the real healer. However, if you're sitting on some decent gear, blowing a few cooldowns and a health pot is usually sufficient if your DPS is competent and Nadox dies quickly.
The Party's Over
Fairly simple. The most obvious way to do this is just to have someone drop group and leave the instance, but apparently you can also have someone drop group, wait for the rest of the group to start DPSing the boss, and then participate as you normally would. The person who drops group doesn't get the achievement but can still help on the kill. Weird.
Volunteer Work
If your tank and healer are well-geared, this isn't tough. Jedoga's damage will increase substantially when her "sacrifice" isn't nuked down, but it's really nothing that a few cooldowns -- or, failing that, a lot of healing -- can't handle. If your tank is still having difficulty living through this, try to have an off-healer in the group who can help out a bit. If that still doesn't work, you can attempt to rotate taunts on Jedoga across her platform -- but with diminishing returns on taunts in 3.1, I think it's safe to say that you should treat this as a tank/healer gear check more than anything else.
Volazj's Quick Demise
This achievement is significantly easier with a Protection Warrior tank, as they can Spell Reflect Volazj's Mind Flay and cause a ton of damage to him, but it's still doable with any class of tank provided they don't threat-cap their DPS.
This achievement becomes fairly straightforward once you realize that the real boss isn't Volazj but rather your Insanity adds. Volazj himself will actually die quickly to competent DPS; it's the adds for whom you need to be blowing cooldowns and potion timers. With a Bloodlust/Heroism and good DPS, you will probably find yourself triggering both Insanities at the same time. If your group has the capacity to deal with these adds within 30-40 seconds, congratulations -- you can do this achievement with time to spare. If you can't, time to start tinkering with group composition or some of the more punk ways of managing this achievement. The good news is that there are a lot of ways to manage this (the Wowhead comment thread lists most of them), from Warlock summons to Army of the Dead to Divine Intervention to having your healer suicide straight off the pull or just come as DPS. The bad news is that none of these will compensate if you just can't pump out the damage you need.
My groups tend to go for the straight burn method, using Bloodlust at the start of the fight and triggering both Insanities at the same time. Using Army of the Dead going into the Insanity phase is extremely helpful if you have a Death Knight, as is stacking your group on top of each other to minimize time spent getting to ranged adds for your melee DPS/tank. Blow all of your serious survival and DPS cooldowns on the adds and get back to killing Volazj posthaste. If you manage this, you should have plenty of time to kill Volazj before the 2-minute mark. The fastest I've managed it is 52 seconds; the slowest has been 1 minute and 27 seconds, so I tend to favor this over more gimmicky techniques because there is room for error or slower/less bursty DPS.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Tom Chilton on what's coming in patch 3.1
Our old friend Jessica Citizen has an interview up with Blizzard's Lead Game Designer on World of Warcraft, Mr. Tom Chilton. When Jeff Kaplan shipped off to other pastures in Blizzard to work on the new MMO, Chilton says he took over Kaplan's meetings, so right now, he is the flag leading the big ship of WoW. In the interview, he talks a bit about dual specs -- the system was originally planned to go in with the Lich King expansion, but it had to be pushed back to 3.1. And Chilton says he's already expecting to answer questions about triple specs at this year's BlizzCon, but of course, there's a balance there, as there has to be some choice on the part of the player as to what they decide to specialize in.
He also talks about the Argent Tournament and Ulduar -- the Tournament, he says, will be a boon to solo players and players who enjoy daily questing, with the jousting minigame mixing things up a bit. And Ulduar's hard modes, as we've heard before, will bring raiding back to the difficulty that players expect. Chilton fesses up to an error that GC hinted at yesterday -- Blizzard nerfed PvP items at the same time that they made raiding more accessible, and the result is that people flocked to PvE while ignoring most of the PvP options. "We kind of over-solved the problem," he says.
In the end, he calls 3.1 "the most ambitious content patch we've ever done for World of Warcraft." We'll have to see -- given that Noblegarden should show up with the new patch, it ought to be implemented by at least April 26th.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Warlock's guide to gearing for Naxx
Wrath of the Lich King has created a new standard for sheer volume of content available to players as soon as they hit max level. And with content, comes gear! Reputation grinds such as the Argent Crusade and the Kirin Tor can be completed in only a few days, even if you schedule time to deal with things like 'real life'. Crafted gear is mostly bind on equip now, making it much more accessible. Several heroics, such as Utgarde Keep, Violet Hold, and Nexus, are easy enough that a DPS can usually slip into them shortly after hitting 80 without slowing their group down. Even the 10- and 25-man versions of Obsidian Sanctum and Vault of Archavon, are frequently cleared by pick-up-groups.
Head slot items for warlocks are pretty much limited to three right now. My current favorite is The Argent Skullcap, attained through a rather simple quest-chain in Icecrown. The high amount of hit rating makes getting that all-important 446 much simpler, and it's far easier and cheaper to get than either of the other two pre-Naxx headpieces. Though if you're a tailor The Hat of Wintry Doom may serve as a skill-up for you. And if the Forgotten Shadow Hood happens to drop in Heroic Culling of Stratholme, it's also a good choice. However, that 446 hit rating has to come from somewhere, and I've rarely seen any piece of gear with as much as The Argent Skullcap has.
There are a few nice neck pieces pre-Naxx that are good to keep an eye out for. Emeline's Locket is my personal favorite, for the hit rating and the gem slot, but if you manage to get into a Heroic Culling of Strat run (which you really should try to do almost as soon as you hit 80. Heroic isn't much more difficult than normal so long as the group isn't attempting a timed run,) then the Necromancer's Amulet is a good alternative. Of course, if you happen to get lucky in 10-man Obsidian Sanctum, then the Circle of Arcane Streams blows them both out of the water!
Shoulder pieces are slim-pickings, but if you look carefully you can find a gem or two. The Runecaster's Mantle is a random drop in Heroic Utgarde Keep, and I don't know if I've ever been there without seeing it drop at least once -- sometimes twice! The Mantle of Deceit is my personal favorite pre-Naxx piece, and has a very good chance to drop off of Mal'Ganis in Heroic Culling of Stratholme. The Dark Runic Mantle, a frequent trash drop in either version of Halls of Stone, is also an excellent choice.
Back pieces are dismally difficult to acquire early on. Even after running Naxx several times I've yet to upgrade from the level 78 Cape of Seething Steam out of Halls of Lightning. And by all rights, there isn't much in the way of level 80 capes even after you get into Naxx. My advice here is to figure out your preferred method of acquiring the Deathchill Cloak (crafting, purchasing, begging friends...) and start working on getting it. But you'll likely be well into Naxx before you've got your hands on that particular purple. I myself still have about 100 quests left to do before the trainer will teach it to me.
For a chest piece, the Ebonweave Robe is my favorite by far, both because of the massive hit rating, and because it got me a skill-up for my tailoring. However, the mat requirements on this one are steep, and I must admit that I had a Naxx run or two under my belt before I got hold of this piece. The Robes of Crackling Flame are an excellent alternative, despite the somewhat taboo presence of Mana-Per-5. Given how quickly reputation gains occur if players consistently wear a single tabard, most will probably get exalted with at least one if not two before they head to their first Naxx run. Easier still are the Water-Drenched Robe from Heroic Violet Hold, which are more than adequate for Naxx.
Best wrist piece grab before getting in LFG for Naxxramas is the Azure Cloth Binding, off the last boss in Heroic Violet Hold. It has an almost 1-in-4 chance to drop, so your odds are pretty good if you can head in there every day. Lady Luck likes to play coy sometimes though, and if she's not being very kind to you then just ask your favorite tailor to make you a pair of Black Duskweave Wristwraps They'll suffice for getting started in Naxx.
Best way to stylishly keep your hands warm while in Northrend is with a good pair of Ebonweave Gloves. They're much cheaper than the Ebonweave Robe, so if you've got a tailoring friend, the hit rating on the gloves is really astounding. That doesn't mean, though, that the cost is insubstantial. So, if you'd rather go a more economic rout, Heroic Culling of Stratholme again has something to offer us with the Gloves of Distorted Time, which drop off of the third boss.
In my humble opinion, the Plush Sash of Guzbah for your waist should be the first piece of badge gear acquired by any warlock. If you've already spent your badges on something else, though, or just don't have the 40-badges to spend, there are good alternatives. The Belt of Unified Souls drops off the first boss, Meathook, in Heroic Culling of Stratholme. And for those willing to farm up some tailoring mats, the Deep Frozen Cord is an excellent piece.
Wearing pants is important, at least that's what the judge told me, and there are several good choices to pick from. The last boss in Heroic Utgarde Keep drops the Breeches of the Caller. Or, if you prefer straight up stats to gem slots, the Black Duskweave Leggings are easily acquired from your neighborhood tailor for a modest fee. The titanic spell power offered by the Opposed Stasis Leggings is also a good alternative.
Feet pieces are some of the more difficult to find in these days. If you rushed to get Wyrmrest Accord reputation for that sexy mount, then the Sandals of Crimson Fury are your best bet. If the dragons weren't your first choice for reputation grinding, however, then the Cleric's Linen Shoes out of Heroic Nexus have a very decent chance to drop off of the faction contingent boss.
Rings are a tricky business, since you need two of them and most are unique-equip. It's also one of the easiest slots to find an epic for. Personally, when I was gearing up for Naxx the first thing I grabbed was the Signet of Hopeful Light from being exalted with the Argent Crusade. But then, I have a freakish compulsion to get exalted with any Argent faction – probably rooted in subconscious guilt over my demonic ways. There are also some good choices in heroics, with the Band of Guile and Annhylde's Ring dropping from Heroic Culling of Stratholme and Heroic Utgarde Keep respectively. And of course, for people who know a friendly jewelcrafter, the Ring of Northern Terrors is a pretty sweet blue.
Trinkets are a lot like rings; the fact that you need two of them makes it a little more work to fill both slots, and there are fewer choices out there for trinkets than there are for rings. The Sundial of the Exiled will likely last you through Naxx and beyond if you've got the badges to spend on it. The Mark of the War Prisoner from Heroic Violet Hold, or the Tome of Arcane Phenomena from normal Oculus are both fine choices -- though the Cannoneer's Fuselighter from questing in Icecrown served me well until I upgraded it in 25-man Naxx.
Your best bet for a wand is the Wand of the San'layn off of the first boss in Heroic Utgarde Keep. It's one of the best wands available prior to Naxx, and it's exceedingly simple to get. However, if you've had bad luck with drops, or just can't stand Utgarde Keep, Iceshrieker's Touch from questing in Storm Peaks is a viable alternative.
Quest gear is the order of the day if you're looking for a weapon of any kind at the preparatory stage. The Chilly Slobberknocker from Amphitheater of Anguish and the Stave of Youthful Sorrow from Tirion's Gambit are roughly equivalent, depending on how you plan to itemize. And if the third boss in Heroic Culling of Stratholme happens to drop the Sempiternal Staff it's a good upgrade to the Slobberknocker if you've managed to find hit rating somewhere else. In the case that you've already got a one-hander you really can't let go of, then Telestra's Journal off of Telestra in Heroic Nexus is a great piece. Check out page 37 for a juicy bit about her crush on Rhonin.
And that's the skinny on pre-Naxx gear for warlocks. Keep in mind this is intended as a brief rundown of good preparatory gear for each slot, and that I've largely omitted any gear that can only be attained through instances I consider difficult for a freshly minted 80. This is just a guide for those looking to replace a particularly low-level piece of gear, or who are trying to get into raiding for the first time. That said, if you manage to deck yourself out in gear from this list, then Kel'Thuzad will be shaking in his chains once you step into Naxx with a bone to pick.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Guide to Rogue stats for new raiders
Wrath's first true raid instances come in the form of a level 60 raid instance put in the microwave for 20 levels and served with a side of dragons. Don't get me wrong; I love the retouched Naxxramas. I never got to experience all of the fights against Kel'Thuzad's minions before they relocated to Northrend, so being able to re-enter the citadel of death and slay some undead is a welcome opportunity.
If you search for "naxx 60 rogue gear guide" I'm sure you'll find a bunch of articles that recommend you sport at least 8/8 Bloodfang and maybe a weapon or two from Ahn'Qiraj. Times have changed, and so have the gear requirements. There are a few magic numbers that every Rogue wants to shoot for. After the cut I'll detail these vital stats and explain why they're so important to us.
Key Stats:
Gear designed for assassins like us can have a variety of stats. Haste rating and armor penetration are among the fringe stats that are simple DPS increases without any sort of "cap" to achieve. Agility and its base components of attack power and critical strike rating are always awesome; but again there is no magic bullet when balancing these numbers. The two stats that you WILL want to focus on when you choose your gear for Naxx are hit rating and expertise rating.
As has been the case since level 1, increasing your chance to hit (or inversely reducing your chance to miss) are the purest ways for a Rogue to increase his or her damage. Hit and expertise scale with every other stat, making them the obvious candidates for gems and enchants until you've reached their caps. Let's talk about the current hit caps that a Rogue will face.
Hit rating:
While Adrine of Cenarion Circle has compiled a great (and thankfully stickied) post containing all of the hit cap numbers for Rogues at 80, I'll go over the key values from that thread. Any Rogue PvE build must contain Precision. Every value that I give for the rest of this article will assume that you have 5/5 Precision in your build, regardless of whether you are HaT, Combat, or HfB Mutilate.
A raiding Rogue with Precision will be shooting for 99 hit rating as a bare minimum from gear (66 if you're playing with a Draenei). This is ensures that all of your yellow (special) attacks will hit (provided you are also at the expertise cap) and is easily achieved with a few +hit gems and possibly a precision enchant to your gloves. Reaching the Yellow Hit Cap (YHC) is crucial for maintaining your rotations.
The next hit cap that a Rogue will shoot for is 315 hit rating (237 with a Moonkin or Shadowpriest, and 210 with a Draenei as well). This is referred to as the Poison Hit Cap (PHC). At this point, bosses will no longer be able to resist your poisons, which is another huge DPS increase. Hit rating now works on both melee attacks as well as spells (which our poisons are considered to be). Reaching the PHC should be your primary focus once you've reached the YHC and the Expertise Cap (EC).
White Hit Cap:
The White Hit Cap (WHC) was a stat that Rogues would previously shoot for in vanilla WoW and TBC, specifically due to the fact that such a large portion of a Combat Rogue's damage came from white (auto) attacks. Now that Mutilate and HaT are in vogue, as well as the fact that poisons now make up a significant portion of our damage, reaching the WHC is not only irrelevant: it's nearly impossible without gimping your other offensive stats.
Expertise rating:
Expertise reduces your target's chance to dodge or parry your attacks. While I have been heralding this as an amazingly underrated stat, raiding Rogues have been ensuring that they reach its cap, the EC. Bosses can still dodge attacks coming from behind them, and so by removing their chance to dodge from behind, you again ensure that all of your attacks land as planned. The amount needed to remove a boss' chance to dodge from behind is 26 Expertise, or 214 Expertise Rating (Humans will have slightly reduced amounts required). This should be your first priority once reaching the YHC.
Putting it together:
To summarize, a Rogue's priority for stat caps should be: YHC (minimum to even run a raid or heroic), EC (well-rounded Rogue), and finally the PHC (raider status). After reaching all of these plateaus, it becomes time to start gemming for pure DPS stats and focusing on increasing your attack power and critical strike chance. Until you reach the EC, your gems and enchants should all be hit or expertise (where applicable). The value of hit rating and expertise rating trump all other stats before you reach the YHC and EC.
While reaching some of these stats may seem difficult, there are a few key items that will allow you to reach these caps very quickly. For example, combining the BoE Chain Gang Legguards and the easily acquired Sphere of Red Dragon's Blood (I talked about this earlier), you've already reached the YHC from just two items. Similarly, the BoE crafted Trollwoven Spaulders and Girdle will get you well over 25% of the way to the EC and are very nice pieces of gear in their own right. I'm still using mine!
Theorycraft it anyway:
While the advice given in this column will apply to most Rogues and most pieces of gear, there are still a few caveats. If you are upgrading from a level 75 blue stacked with hit rating to a level 80 epic with no hit rating whatsoever, it still may be beneficial to wear the epic anyway. While below the YHC/EC/PHC the value of hit and expertise are very high; but sometimes not high enough to offset the difference between a blue and an epic. Put both pieces into a spreadsheet and see which comes out with a greater damage increase.
Conclusion:
You may be seeing a lot of our brothers and sisters of the shadows advertising in Dalaran that they are "hit capped" and looking for a raid. In reality, as it's impossible to reach the WHC realistically, they're likely talking about the YHC or the PHC; and which tier they're at makes a big difference. Once you've reached the YHC and EC, you'll be ready to raid full time. Next week I'll be covering the gear that you can use to reach these caps and to ensure you are prepared for Kel'thuzad and his acolytes.
Gearing your Balance Druid at 80
Greetings, fellow Druids, and welcome to another installment on Wrath gear at 80, and this week it's the boomkins' turn. Next week I'm going to tackle Bear gear at 80; Dan O'Halloran will take care of our Cat colleagues.
As a number of people have observed, it's tougher to get +hit-capped pre-raid in leather as opposed to cloth, so you're going to find an awful lot of cloth on the list. I realize this represents a new and exciting development in the history of moonkin itemization. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. That's French for "We're screwed."
Supplementary reading:
- Elitist Jerks' threads on Balance trinkets, Moonkin DPS spreadsheet, general issues, and Balance talents and specs.
- As a note here concerning the recent news on Improved Faerie Fire (in a nutshell, you'll get the 3% crit no matter whose FF is up on a target, even a feral's), Gray Matter on why the talent's worth taking, and Macbook on the raid circumstances in which it might not be.
As with our previous entry on pre-raid Restoration gear at 80, these guides assume that you do not presently have access to either 10-man or 25-man raids.
If you've read the Restoration piece, you'll be familiar with how I'm organizing gear for these guides, but for the sake of reference:
Best overall: If there's one piece that's just better than anything else you can get, I'll have it listed here. Most of these will cost you Emblems of Heroism or a truckload of gold, however.
Best drop/s: Self-explanatory, the best (typically heroic) 5-man drops you can get.
Best quest piece: Also self-explanatory, but fair warning -- if you're looking to get most of your pieces outside of 5-mans, many of the quests rewarding the best pieces are linked to dungeons (usually normal) or group quests.
Best faction piece: If a quartermaster offers a usable piece, it'll be here. You'll get convenience at the cost of having to deal with pieces that are usually a dog's breakfast of caster stats, though.
Runner-up: This is kind of a catch-all term for good, usable, or even excellent pieces you can get by other means. If there's a blue or epic BoE piece floating around the AH, or a workhorse 5-man drop you can also use, it'll be here. Some of the pieces in the runner-up slot may seem odd for inclusion there (e.g. epics like raid BoE's), but as far as I'm concerned, if it's going to cost you a metric ton of gold to get them, they are firmly optional. You do not need to be equipped in full epics to raid as long as you're not lazy about enchants and gems.
Enchant: Just in case you have any gold left after gearing up. You won't, but it's nice to dream!
With respect to item weight, I'm prioritizing +hit, then +spellpower, +haste, then +crit, in accordance with balance theorycraft concerning maximum-DPS builds.
HEAD
Best drop: Battlemap Hide Helm, off Prince Keleseth in heroic Utgarde Keep.
Best quest piece: Cowl of the Vindictive Captive, from the quest Vengeance Be Mine! in Utgarde Pinnacle if you're hit-capped. If you're not, use The Argent Skullcap, from the quest The Crusaders' Pinnacle.
Best faction piece: Helm of the Majestic Stag, available at honored with the Kirin Tor. This is really not a Balance piece, but it's the only helm you'll be able to get from a faction if all else fails.
Runner-up: Hat of Wintry Doom, a BoE piece from Tailoring.
Enchant: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries, available at revered with the Kirin Tor.
Meta: Chaotic Skyflare Diamond. Some prefer the Ember Skyflare, however.
NECK
Best overall: Encircling Burnished Gold Chains, available for 25 emblems of heroism.
Best drop: Necklace of Taldaram, from Prince Taldaram in heroic Old Kingdom.
Best quest piece: Emeline's Locket, from the quest The Admiral Revealed in Icecrown.
Best faction piece: n/a. You're out of luck here.
Runner-up: Titanium Spellshock Necklace, a Jewelcrafting BoE.
SHOULDERS
Best drop: Spaulders of Krystallus, from Krystallus in heroic Halls of Stone.
Best quest piece: Mantle of the Flesh Giant, from the quest The Flesh Giant Champion in Icecrown. If you prefer +crit to +haste, use Shoulderpads of the Adventurer, from the quest Halls of Stone in (where else?) Halls of Stone.
Best faction piece: n/a. Another dead slot.
Runner-up: Dark Runic Mantle, a BoE drop from heroic Halls of Stone, or Purehorn Spaulders, a Leatherworking BoE.
Enchant: Greater Inscription of the Storm, available at exalted with the Sons of Hodir, unless you're a level 400+ Inscriptionist and have access to Master's Inscription of the Storm.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Gearing your Restoration Druid at 80
I'm not going to "rank" gear numerically, because I think that's a fairly unhelpful means of organizing items when your access to all of them as a fresh 80 may be very limited. Generally you're going to have access to quest rewards and faction gear before you get access to badge pieces or oft-uncooperative heroic drops, so I've organized the list by where you can get particular drops. It's generally safe to assume that a heroic drop is better than a blue you're using from an Icecrown quest, but not always. If you're starting to move into higher levels of gear, I found the following links to be incredibly helpful, and I hope you do too:
- HoTsTree's gear list
- Resto4Life's post on Wowhead filters and pre-raid gear in the main slots
- Elitist Jerks post on Restoration Itemization and PvE Healing as a Druid
Otherwise, assuming a proper spec, gems, and enchants, you can successfully heal any of the game's 5-man or raid content (10-man or 25-man) with a healing set derived from the following list. That's a promise. This list assumes that you do not have access to 10- or 25-man raids for the time being and are gearing up primarily through questing, 5-mans, and heroics.
To the extent that I've ranked anything, for inclusion in this list I'm prioritizing +spellpower and +spirit (and secondarily +intellect) over everything else.
I am a very big fan of spirit, both on gear and in talents, and this gear list assumes that you are taking relevant Spirit-related talents in the Restoration tree (which are generally a part of standard Restoration builds at 80 anyway). If you're not, you'll want to prioritize mp5 gear more than I have here. Mana regeneration isn't as big a deal if you do mostly 5-mans and heroics, but if you're planning to raid at either the 10-man or 25-man level, you have some fairly lengthy fights ahead of you. This gets much worse if your guild is going for any of the raid achievements, as many of them (particularly Sartharion with drakes up) will tax your mana supply.Gear is divided into the following categories --
Best overall: If there's one piece that's just better than anything else you can get, I'll have it listed here. Most of these will cost you Emblems of Heroism or a truckload of gold, however.
Best drop/s: Self-explanatory, the best (typically heroic) 5-man drops you can get.
Best quest piece: Also self-explanatory, but fair warning -- if you're looking to get most of your pieces outside of 5-mans, many of the quests rewarding the best pieces are linked to dungeons (usually normal) or group quests.
Best faction piece: If a quartermaster offers a useful piece, it'll be here. You'll get convenience at the cost of having to deal with pieces that are usually a dog's breakfast of caster stats, though.
Runner-up: This is kind of a catch-all term for good, usable, or even excellent pieces you can get by other means. If there's a blue or epic BoE piece floating around the AH, or a workhorse 5-man drop you can also use, it'll be here. Some of the pieces in the runner-up slot may seem odd for inclusion there (e.g. epics like raid BoE's or Moonshroud), but as far as I'm concerned, if it's going to cost you a metric ton of gold to get them, they are firmly optional. You do not need to be equipped in full epics to raid as long as you're not lazy about enchants and gems.
Enchant: Just in case you have any gold left after gearing up. Ha ha! I kid because I love.
HEAD
Best overall: Helm of Anomalus from heroic Nexus.
Best drops: Crown of Unbridled Magic from the Cache of Eregos in heroic Oculus, or Forgotten Shadow Hood from Salramm the Fleshcrafter in heroic Culling of Stratholme. These are actually pretty similar overall to the Anomalus helm, so if you get one of the three, don't bother trying to get another one if you've spent the money on gems and the enchant.
Best quest piece: Shroud of Temptation, from the quest Cleansing Drak'tharon in Grizzly Hills/Drak'tharon Keep.
Best faction piece: Helm of the Majestic Stag, available at honored with the Kirin Tor.
Runner-up: Elder Headpiece, from Elder Nadox in heroic Old Kingdom. No meta socket, but it'll tide you over until you can get a helm that has one.
Enchant: Arcanum of Blissful Mending, available at revered with the Wyrmrest Accord.
Meta: While you're gearing up, an Insightful Earthsiege Diamond is going to be helpful. With better gear, an Ember Skyflare might ultimately be better than the static proc from the Insightful. This is the subject of some discussion over at EJ.
NECK
Best drop: Amulet of Dazzling Light, from Anomalus in heroic Nexus.
Best quest piece: Amulet of the Crusade, from the quest The Admiral Revealed in Icecrown.
Best faction piece: n/a.
Runner-up: Dragon-Prow Amulet, a BoE from heroic Utgarde Keep trash.
SHOULDERS
Best drops: Silent Spectator Shoulderpads, from Svala Sorrowgrave in heroic Utgarde Pinnacle, or Mantle of Deceit, from the Dark Runed chest in heroic Culling of Stratholme.
Best quest piece: Lightning Infused Mantle, from the quest Diametrically Opposed in Storm Peaks.
Best faction piece: n/a.
Runner-up: Runecaster's Mantle, a BoE from heroic Utgarde Keep trash.
Enchant: Greater Inscription of the Crag, available at exalted with the Sons of Hodir. However, if you have 400 Inscription, you'll have access to Master's Inscription of the Crag, which you'll want to use instead.
CLOAK
Best overall: Wispcloak, a Tailoring BoE. This is probably going to be fairly expensive for a while; Tailors can't get this pattern until completing the Northrend Dungeonmaster achievement.
Best drop: Subterranean Waterfall Shroud, from Jedoga Shadowseeker in heroic Old Kingdom, or Ancient Dragon Spirit Cape from the Cache of Eregos in heroic Oculus.
Best quest piece: Bloodbane Shroud, from the quest The Fate of Bloodbane in Icecrown.
Best faction piece: It's not that great for Restoration, but if all else fails you can get Shroud of Dedicated Research at honored with the Kirin Tor.
Runner-up: Reanimator's Cloak, a BoE from heroic Drak'tharon Keep trash.
Enchant: This is kind of a toss-up. If you're min-maxing mana regeneration, you'll want Enchant Cloak -- Wisdom, which has the added benefit of decreasing your threat. If your mp5 is OK or you use a lot of direct heals, you'll want Enchant Cloak -- Greater Speed. Actually, I'm sorely tempted to say just get Greater Speed if for no other reason than Wisdom is an abysmally bad enchant for the materials required. Six abyss crystals for 10 spirit?
CHEST
Best overall: Heroes' Dreamwalker Robe, available for 80 Emblems of Heroism.
Best drop: Raiments of the Titans, from Loken on normal Halls of Lightning.
Best quest piece: Tunic of the Unduly Victorious, from the quest Battle at Valhallas: Final Challenge in Icecrown.
Best faction piece: Robes of Crackling Flame, available at exalted with the Kirin Tor.
Runners-up: Ymirjar Physicians' Robe, a BoE from heroic Utgarde Pinnacle trash. If you manage to pick this up during a run, great. If you don't, check for it on the AH. Otherwise, check for the Moonshroud Robe, or bug a Tailor buddy.
Enchant: The old +15 spirit chest enchant hasn't yet been given a Wrath update, so you can continue to use that, or the new Enchant Chest -- Powerful Stats.
BRACERS
Best drop: Cuffs of Winged Levitation from the Cache of Eregos in heroic Oculus, or Cuffs of the Trussed Hall from Svala Sorrowgrave in heroic Utgarde Pinnacle.
Best quest piece: Soaring Wristwraps, from the quest A Wing and a Prayer in Oculus.
Best faction piece: Toss-up between Wound-Binder's Wristguards (revered Ebon Blade) or Ancestral Sinew Wristguards (revered Wyrmrest Accord), depending on how you choose to socket Ancestral Sinew. Wound-Binder's is otherwise superior.
Enchant: No contest. Enchant Bracers -- Superior Spellpower or, if you're a Leatherworker, Fur Lining -- Spell Power.
GLOVES
Best overall: Heroes' Dreamwalker Handguards, available for 60 Emblems of Heroism.
Best drop: Overlook Handguards, from the Prophet Tharon'ja in heroic Drak'tharon.
Best quest piece: Gloves of the Time Guardian, from the quest A Royal Escort in normal or heroic Culling of Stratholme.
Best faction piece: Sterile Flesh-Handling Gloves, available at revered with the Ebon Blade.
Runner-up: Moonshroud Gloves, a Tailoring BoE, or Grotto Mist Gloves, from Hadronox in heroic Azjol-Nerub.
Enchant: Enchant Gloves -- Exceptional Spellpower.
BELT
Best overall: Elegant Temple Gardens' Girdle, available for 40 Emblems of Heroism.
Best drop: Belt of Vivacity, from Volkhan in heroic Halls of Lightning.
Best quest piece: Belt of the Never-Forgotten, from the quest Light Within the Darkness in Icecrown.
Best faction piece: Toss-up between Belt of Dark Mending (exalted Ebon Blade) and Ghostflicker Waistband (exalted Kirin Tor) depending on how you choose to socket Ghostflicker.
Enchant: This isn't really an enchant as such, but you'll want to add an Eternal Belt Buckle to give yourself an additional socket.
PANTS
Best overall: Earthgiving Legguards, a Leatherworking BoE.
Best drop: Skirt of the Old Kingdom or Kilt of the Forgotten One, both (weirdly enough) from Herald Volazj in heroic Old Kingdom.
Best quest piece: Leggings of Heightened Renewal from the quest The Iron Colossus in Storm Peaks.
Best faction piece: Giant-Friend Kilt, available at revered with the Sons of Hodir. These are really oriented more toward Balance, but surprisingly they're the only caster legs available with Wrath factions.
Runner-up: Cyanigosa's Leggings from Cyanigosa in heroic Violet Hold, Opposed Stasis Leggings off Commander Stoutbeard/Commander Kolurg in heroic Nexus, or Breeches of the Caller from Ingvar the Plunderer in heroic Utgarde Keep.
Enchant: Sapphire Spellthread or Brilliant Spellthread, depending on how optimistic you are concerning your health versus mana regen. Have fun farming those eternals!
FEET
Best overall: Arcanic Tramplers, a BoE from Malygos-25. If you are very, very lucky, these will start showing up in /trade or the AH as raids gear up and guilds start selling BoE pieces, but they won't come cheap.
Best drop: Cleric's Linen Shoes from Commander Stoutbear/Commander Kolrug in heroic Nexus, Boots of Transformation from Gal'darah in heroic Gun'drak, or Footwraps of Teleportation from Xevozz in heroic Violet Hold.
Best quest piece: Fur-Lined Moccasins from the quest One of A Kind in Zul'drak/Gun'drak, or The Darkspeaker's Footpads from the quest Mind Tricks in Icecrown.
Best faction piece: Sandals of Crimson Fury, available at exalted with the Wyrmrest Accord.
Runner-up: Earthgiving Boots, a Leatherworking BoE.
Enchant: Either Enchant Boots -- Greater Spirit or Enchant Boots -- Tuskarr's Vitality depending on your gear set and playstyle. You can also slap Enchant Boots -- Greater Vitality on, and that's fine too, but assuming you have the Spirit-related talents in the Restoration tree, Greater Spirit will do more for you (and scale better) than 6 mp5.
RINGS
Best drop: Spectral Seal of the Prophet, from the Prophet Tharon'ja in heroic Drak'tharon, or Band of Guile from the Dark Runed Chest in heroic Culling of Stratholme
Best quest piece: Lion's Head Ring, from the quest For Posterity in Zul'drak/Gun'drak, or Flourishing Band, from the quest The Struggle Persists in the Oculus.
Best faction piece: Signet of Hopeful Light, available at exalted with the Argent Crusade.
Runner-up: Titanium Spellshock Ring, a BoE from Jewelcrafting.
Enchant (if applicable): Enchant Ring -- Greater Spellpower.
TRINKETS
Best overall: Darkmoon Card: Greatness. Yes, the intellect version is actually better than the spirit version, consequence of how our mana regeneration from spirit scales with intellect. Unfortunately, you're going to be scrambling for Nobles cards alongside every other poor bastard on your server, so don't count on being able to get this quickly unless you're willing to burn through upwards of 20,000 gold.
Runner-up, courtesy of the fact that only horse thieves and murderers will have Nobles Decks: The Egg of Mortal Essence, available for 40 Emblems of Heroism.
Best drop: Soul Preserver from the Dark Runed Chest in normal Culling of Stratholme, Talisman of Troll Divinity from the Prophet Tharon'ja in heroic Drak'tharon, Spark of Life from Sjonnir in heroic Halls of Stone (ugh, +haste, ugh), or Tome of Arcane Phenomena from the Cache of Eregos in heroic Oculus.
Best quest piece: Cannoneer's Morale, from the quest The Last Line of Defense in Icecrown. You can also use any of the usual green +spellpower trinkets granted by quests while leveling. I confess to being rather interested by the Futuresight Rune, a reward from Mystery of the Infinite, Redux in Dragonblight.
Best faction piece: There's nothing truly relevant in this slot, although you can use the Frenzyheart Insignia of Fury or Oracle Talisman of Ablution if you're really desperate.
Additional runners-up: Figurine -- Sapphire Owl for Jewelcrafters or Mercurial Alchemist Stone for Alchemists.
Important note: Aertimus at Hotstree makes the point that one of the best trinkets (if not the best) for Restoration druids remains Darkmoon Card -- Blue Dragon. I don't yet have this and haven't been able to test the proc rate at 80, but if Blizzard hasn't nerfed it (and according to Wowhead commenters, they haven't), then Aertimus is 100% accurate. Keep an eye out for Beasts cards.
WEAPON
Best overall: Staff of Draconic Combat, from the Cache of Eregos in heroic Oculus.
Best drop: War Mace of Unrequited Love from Keristrasza in heroic Nexus, or Netherbreath Spellblade/Staff of Wayward Principles from Skadi the Ruthless in heroic Utgarde Pinnacle. Bonus: the Spellblade's graphic is very sword-like, which is kind of a novelty for Druids.
Best quest piece: Screw-Sprung Fixer-Upper, from the quest The Champion of Anguish in Zul'drak.
Best faction piece: Gavel of the Brewing Storm, available at revered with the Wyrmrest Accord.
Runner-up: Titansteel Guardian, a Blacksmithing BoE.
Enchant: Hands-down it's Mighty Spellpower, but this is hellishly expensive in the early days of an expansion with very few people willing to disenchant epics. You can use Enchant Weapon -- Exceptional Spellpower in its place, or try Enchant Weapon -- Exceptional Spirit.
OFF-HAND
Best overall: Handbook of Obscure Remedies, available for 40 Emblems of Heroism.
Best drop: Temple Crystal Fragment, from Novos the Summoner in heroic Drak'tharon Keep.
Best quest piece: The Witching Grimoire, from the quest Banshee's Revenge in Icecrown.
Best faction piece: The only item in this slot from faction vendors is going to be the Darkspear Orb for Horde/Orb of the Eastern Kingdoms for Alliance, available at revered with your respective faction in Northrend (Horde Expedition/Alliance Vanguard). Not that great either way.
Runner-up: Frostbridge Orb, a BoE off heroic Oculus trash.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Metagaming for newbies
Welcome to metagaming. Researching your WoW game – your crunchy bits -- can be one of the most enjoyable aspects of playing World of Warcraft. While some players relish tackling new content with no preparations and no spoilers, others enjoy digging up encounter strategies and mapping out intricate leveling, gear and crafting plans. We'll introduce you to some basic resources for "theorycrafting" to start your New Year in WoW off with a (quantifiable) bang!
Here are a few top picks for barebones WoW research basics. Yes, we know there are lots of other great resources out there. We know! We do! Once you visit these sites, you'll undoubtedly discover others that suit your tastes – especially sites specific to your class, spec, profession and other niches.
For now, let's look at a few of the best places to get started getting your crunch on.
Crunchy Bits 101
- wowhead.com Today's standard for looking up gear and other items. Reader comments generally always list "the trick" you may not be getting to finish that persnickety quest.
- Wowwiki.com What instances are at your level? What strategy will defeat this boss? What specs are currently effective for my class? How can I build rep with this faction? All this, and more.
- Kaliban's Class Loot Lists An easy way to browse what gear is out there and what's accessible to you.
- Be Imba All the rage in online theorycrafting tools; tweak your character's gear for optimum PvE performance.
- MaxDPS Gear rankings, spell rotations and tactics for – you guessed it – maximum DPS (Damage Per Second).
- Elitist Jerks The forums at EJ are where the big boys rattle their theorycrafting sabers. Approach with caution; this is definitely way more detail than a WoW Rookie really needs to know. If you're curious about arcane formulae that make the eyes of end-game players dance with glee, though, you'll quiver with delight.
Class-specific resources
The best starting spot for information on your class is Blizzard's own class forums – not the discussion threads themselves, but the informative stickies at the top.
From there, reach out and Google around. We're sure the comments will fill up with reader favorites, too. There's sooo much meaty goodness beyond these basics.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Spiritual Guidance: 4 common myths about Discipline Priests
Even though I'm still a Holy Priest at heart, I wanted to raise more awareness for Discipline Priests. This week's post in particular is aimed at raid leaders or players who don't think Discipline can't cut it.
So let's start with the first one. Priests themselves know what they can and can't do.
Myth: Disc Priests can't solo heal
False
The abilities of a Priest revolve around their Power Word: Shield and Divine Aegis procs. I can't emphasize this enough. It's all about the damage prevention with healers littered in between.
They can hold their own in a raid environment provided they are used correctly.
Raid leaders and analysts need to remember that prevented damage may not always show up correctly. Even though it looks like a Disc Priest may not be healing as much as Joe Paladin, you have to factor shielding in there somehow. A good rule of thumb I like to use is to take the Priest's overall healing and add 30% to see how much damage has been mitigated or healed.
I'm probably way off on that though.
Myth: Disc Priests can't raid heal
False
While it is true that a Disc Priest cannot match the throughput of a deep Holy, Circle of Healing Priest, that does not mean they can't raid heal. They're just not the best for the job. Think about it this way. A Paladin can raid heal. They're just not optimized for it.
Prayer of Healing and Holy Nova are there to help. Don't write them off entirely. They can still do it.
Myth: Disc Priests run out of mana quickly
False
After inspecting various Priests that I've pugged stuff with, I've come to the conclusion that there are a few... shall we say, misguided players out there.
I beg you.
Please do not use some sort of hybrid 35/35/0 talent selection and then promptly complain about running out of mana. A Disc Priest is not a player who goes down the Disc tree to pick up Improved Divine Spirit and then invests the rest into Holy.
It doesn't work that way.
A Disc Priest is one that actually goes deep down the Disc tree. We're talking like at least 45 points. Give or take.
All the good stuff and mana regen stuff? You pick that up deep in the Discipline or Holy trees. It's virtually impossible to pick both of them up unless you can somehow hack yourself into getting 120 talent points.
In Discipline, mana regen talents revolve around Rapture. I guess you could factor in Enlightenment, Power Infusion, and Mental Agility as well.
Under Holy, it's all about Surge of Light, Serendipity, and Holy Concentration.
(On a side note, do other Priests get annoyed when Surge of Light or Holy Concentration procs and no one has taken any damage? I suppose you could Surge off a free Smite.)
Myth: Disc Priests are useless
False
Okay, so I might have made that last myth up. But seriously, if I had to give an opinion on this, I think the reason Disc Priests are discriminated against is because they're still relatively new. The game's only been out for a little over a month and Disc Priests have had a reputation as being all stars in PvP action and not so much in the PvE area.
So to raid leaders, the next time you think about turning down a Disc Priest, please make sure you're doing it for the right reasons. Turn them down because you're full on healers. Turn them down because you don't have enough raid healers. Or if they're not geared enough for the content you're doing.
Give them a chance to change your mind.
Remember when Protection Paladins used to be scoffed at? Then they started to main tank Karazhan without shackles or CCs. Pretty soon, doing Hyjal practically required a Prot Paladin (because it was easier to, not because it was absolutely necessary).
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Flight paths in Storm Peaks
Welcome back, flight path fans! Storm Peaks is the penultimate zone in Northrend, and a welcome return to navigational complexity. As I mentioned in my last post on Sholazar, it is also my favorite zone in Northrend; I really enjoy all the Titan stuff as well as the background on the dwarves we get in the Alliance quests. The Sons of Hodir have the dubious honor of being probably the most difficult essential faction to rep up with, but that's going to get much easier in 3.0.8 when Relics of Ulduar become a rep turn-in. Anyway, I'd better get on with the FPs; there are quite a few of them.
Neutral
K3 (41,83), run by the goblins, is the entry point to Storm Peaks (and a pun off a famous mountain). I only wish we could ride on rockets all the time out of this one.
Dun Niffelem (63,61) is a heavily phased Frost Giant town, headquarters of the Sons of Hodir. You will not be able to go here without being attacked before doing some significant questing (but don't worry, they're very enjoyable quests).
Bouldercrag Refuge, in the northwest of the zone, has a flight master at 31,36.
There's also a small cluster of NPCs up near the Ulduar instances, including a flight master (45,28), a repairer, and a reagent vendor. This is very handy for those Halls of Stone and Halls of Lightning runs (both of which are pretty nasty on heroic, in my opinion, especially the Tribunal and Loken). It will become even more essential in patch 3.1, when the Ulduar raid is due to be added.
Alliance
- 5. Frosthold (30,74) is the hub for some essential questing; I don't want to give anything away, but it's a very dwarf-heavy town. It's also your opportunity to pick up a boot flask for the low price of 10 relics before it gets raised to 250 in 3.0.8.
Horde
5. Grom'arsh Crash Site is situated in the north center of Storm Peaks; its flight master is at 36,49.
- 6. Camp Tunka'lo, filled with those nifty Taunka, is in eastern Storm Peaks. You can catch a flight out of it at 66,51. There's an interesting idea that the flight master, Hyeyoung Parker, is named after a Korean actress; it is certainly an unusual name for WoW.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Wintergrasp daily quests
So now you know all about the zone, familiarized yourself with the gameplay, and have some sort of idea on the strategies on how to win it, let's have a look at the daily quests associated with the zone. The cool thing about Wintergrasp dailies is that they are the only source of Stone Keeper's Shards outside of dungeon bosses and the only way to obtain them whether or not your faction controls Wintergrasp.
The Wintergrasp dailies are also an excellent source of Honor and some can be done without actually doing any PvP whatsoever, which is a strange new trend in Wrath of the Lich King, where the PvP side of the game is accessible entirely through PvE. The very first daily quest is self-explanatory -- Victory in Wintergrasp, which requires players to win a battle for the zone. Alliance players get this quest from the Tactical Officer Abrahmis, while Horde players get it from Tactical Officer Kilrath. If you control the zone, these NPCs can be found in front of Wintergrasp Keep, where the Titan Relic is housed. If you don't, they can be found in the landing camps on the East or West.
The quest seems to be currently unavailable in the game, as it has been very buggy and many players have reported not completing the quest even after a victory and having the requisite Rank. I'm certain the quest will return in bug-free form with Patch 3.0.8, if not hotfixed sooner. Completing the quest awards one Stone Keeper's Shard, 13 Gold 23 Silver, and 1241 Honor at Level 80.
Gallery: Wintergrasp
No Mercy for the Merciless (A) / Slay Them All! (H)
Just like most quests in Wintergrasp, this is pretty straightforward -- kill 20 members of the opposing faction. Unlike other Northrend PvP quests, such as the ones in Grizzly Hills, only players and not NPCs will count towards this quest. Because of tagging mechanics, it's best if you do this while in a raid group. Players killed with a vehicle will count, too, so don't worry about taking control of one.
Alliance players can obtain this quest from Commander Zanneth while Horde players can get this from Commander Dardosh. Just like all Wintergrasp NPCs, they will spawn inside the Fortress if your faction controls it or at the landing camp if your faction does not. Completing this quest awards three Stone Keeper's Shards, which is almost like killing a heroic dungeon boss when you have Essence of Wintergrasp. It also gives 13 Gold 23 Silver, and 1241 Honor at Level 80. Because you also gain Honor while killing the requisite 20 players, this is a good quest for Honor grinding.
I highly recommend taking the trip to Icecrown and picking up the dailies Make Them Pay! if you're Horde and No Mercy! if you're Alliance from the floating airships. Kills made in Wintergrasp will count towards these quests, including siege vehicles, which count as a player of the opposing faction. This makes either quest extremely easy to complete while in Wintergrasp. The quests award 13 Gold 23 Silver and 800 bonus Honor at Level 80.
A Rare Herb (A) / Healing With Roses (H)
These quests are part of the elemental farming series that randomly change every day. Alliance players may get the quest from Anchorite Tessa and Horde players from Primalist Mulfort. It requires killing Living Lashers or enemy players in the Steppe of Life in Southwestern Wintergrasp. The drop -- Alliance or Horde Herb Pouches -- comes from the plant elementals as well as opposing players. Players have a higher chance to drop the item and in larger quantities (up to two).
In Patch 3.0.8, players will have a buff indicating what quest item they will drop when killed. This will make farming the drop easier and presumably not limited to the zone. This is an awesome change because it means players can complete these kinds of quests while battling for the Fortress simply by looting slain opponents.These quests aren't as good to farm through simply killing Living Lashers because of the low drop rate and because there are no greater elemental versions of the plant elementals even if you control Wintergrasp. Completing this quest rewards three Stone Keeper's Shards, 13 Gold 23 Silver, and 1241 Honor at Level 80.
Bones and Arrows (A / H)
This quest may be obtained from Bowyer Randolph if you're Alliance and from Lieutenant Vieron Blazefeather if you're Horde. The required drops, Quiver of Dragonbone Arrows, come from the shadow elementals in the Forest of Shadows in Western Wintergrasp, as well as opposing players. Players and Shadow Revenants have a chance to drop up to two of the quest item, so unlike the previous quests where it makes no difference, it's best to do this when your faction controls the zone. Completing the quest rewards three Stone Keeper's Shards, 13 Gold 23 Silver, and 1241 Honor at Level 80.
Fueling the Demolishers (A / H)
This quest is given by Siege Master Stouthandle if you're Alliance and Siegesmith Stronghoof if you're Horde, but unlike similar daily quests, these are turned in to your faction's Commanders -- the ones that ask you to slay 20 opponents -- instead of the original quest givers. I'm not a big fan of this quest because the Cauldron of Flames in Southeastern Wintergrasp, where the fire elementals who drop the quest item Eternal Embers can be found, is a heavily farmed place.
On a good note, the Flame Revenants are guaranteed to drop 1-3 Crystallized Fire, so it's not bad money at all if you decide to do it when your faction controls Wintergrasp. Otherwise, when Patch 3.0.8 kicks in, it's easy enough to complete the quest when killing players elsewhere in the zone so you won't have to compete with Crystallized Fire farmers. Completing the quest rewards three Stone Keeper's Shards, 13 Gold 23 Silver, and 1241 Honor at Level 80.
Warding the Warriors (A) / Jinxing the Walls (H)
The last random daily elemental farming quest is one that requires players to kill water elementals in the Glacial Falls in East Wintergrasp. Because Water Revenants have a chance to drop up to two Imbued Horde Armor or Enchanted Alliance Breastplates, it's best to do these quests when your faction controls the zone as with Bones and Arrows and Fueling the Demolishers. Sorceress Kaylana gives this to the Alliance, while Hoodoo Master Fu'jin gives this to the Horde. Completing the quest rewards three Stone Keeper's Shards, 13 Gold 23 Silver, and 1241 Honor at Level 80.
Stop the Siege (A / H) or Defend the Siege (A / H)
The last daily quest is only random depending on whether you get it while you control Wintergrasp or are assaulting it. If you control the zone, you will get Stop the Siege from Senior Demolitionist Legoso if you're Alliance or Alterac Valley favorite Lieutenant Murp if you're Horde. If you don't control the zone, they will give Defend the Siege instead. However, you can complete the quest whether you are attacking or defending.
Stop the Siege is the more straightforward of the two quests, requiring you to destroy three siege vehicles. This is easy enough to do and it will help if you are in a raid group. Defending the Siege is easier to do on offense, as you will get credit for the quest whenever a siege vehicle destroys a structure. This means if there are three siege vehicles within the vicinity when a wall or tower is destroyed, this quest easily completes. On offense, you'll have to accompany vehicles to destroy workshops or Southern towers, which isn't always done. Completing the quest rewards three Stone Keeper's Shards, 13 Gold 23 Silver, and 1241 Honor at Level 80.
Completing all Wintergrasp daily quests available reward up to 10 Stone Keeper's Shards (9 at the moment as Victory for Wintergrasp seems to be unavailable) and almost 5,000 Honor, which is an awesome haul considering players can do it solo. It's curious to note that the quest NPCs will despawn for a short while when the battle begins or sometimes even for the entire duration of the battle. The Victory for Wintergrasp quest also seemed to occupy or share the daily Battleground quest slot such that it became unavailable if you already accepted a daily Battleground quest. Hopefully the quest bugs will be fixed soon.
Flight paths in Sholazar Basin
Sholazar takes the the honor of having the fewest flight points of any Northrend zone, featuring only two neutral points.
Nesingwary Base Camp. This FP is interesting in that it is not immediately open - you need to do some quests to retrieve an engine and collect parts in order to rebuild the flying machine in order to be able to fly from it. After doing the quests, the flying machine itself, named the Spirit of Gnomeregan (26,58), acts as flight master.
River's Heart, in the center of the zone. This FP (50,62) does not need to be unlocked by questing. There is also a Cold Weather Flying trainer here, in case you happen to ding 77 while questing in Sholazar (though on both of my 80s so far, I hit 77 either one or two zones earlier).
The next post will take me to my favorite Northrend zone, Storm Peaks, which is a little more interesting FP-wise. Until then, have fun, and if you see our local friendly spirit beast, be sure to tell a hunter.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Northern Engineering highlights
Engineering has seen many changes over the past year, and Wrath of the Lich King brought even more. Today, Insider Trader is taking a look at some of the highlights of the profession to help you set goals and plan ahead with your leveling.
This by no means covers every schematic, and instead looks at the big ticket items and new innovations, including stylish, if somewhat controversial, new modes of transportation, consolidations to save bag space, and more.
Engineering
Engineering in Wrath of the Lich King is very different from what you've experienced previously. For example, Engineers used to be weighed down by trinkets, if they ever wanted to be able to use many of their gadgets. This system is slowly being replaced by a special type of "enchant" that allows an Engineer to consolidate.
Engineers are also beginning to focus on designing items that can be sold to other players, which adds another side to the profession.
There are currently no dropped Engineering schematics, although the plans for the two faction-specific mounts come from reaching exalted with the Horde Expedition or the Alliance Vanguard.
350-380
Cobalt Frag Bombs, introduced with the latest expansion, offer an incredibly cheap way to level your Engineering. This is perfect for players that are still leveling their characters, and can't fly around Northrend gathering whatever they please at efficient speeds.
These bombs are orange at 350, and go yellow at 375, and green around 380. The Volatile Blasting Triggers needed can be found in the Borean Tundra. in the Geyser Fields. There are plenty of little mechanical mobs that can be killed, looted, and then salvaging their parts, much the way a Miner can mine certain rocky corpses.
375
At this point, your bombs are yellow quality, and you learn two new recipes. The Bladed Pickaxe and the Hammer Pick are not only cheap ways to level, they are useful items that can be sold to other players.
The Bladed Pickaxe serves as both a mining pick and a skinning knife, which is perfect for gatherers who chose Mining and Skinning over Herbalism and Skinning, or the tracking nightmare that is Mining and Herbalism.
The Hammer Pick is ideal for Blacksmiths and Engineers who took Mining alongside their primary professions.
380
While this is not a leveling tool, the Belt-Clipped Spynoculars will save you some bag space and make you look more like a bonified spy.
This clips to your belt, and replaces your Ornate Spyglass, if you carried one. It allows you to see far into the distance, and it shows all of the locations of gas clouds on your mini-map. These two functions are also carried out by many engineering goggles, especially epics, but you may find yourself without an appropriate pair while leveling.
This stacks with the Eternal Belt Buckle made by Blacksmiths.
You will also learn the Flexweave Underlay, which allows you to turn any cloak into a Parachute Cloak by adding this "enchant." This does take the place of an enchant, so it will likely be more popular for casual players who farm, quest and do some dungeoning or light raiding, than it will be for people who love to push their stats up as high as possible.
Previously, if you wanted your cloak to give you a Slow Fall-like effect, you needed a separate cloak like the Parachute Cloak (30 second cooldown) or the Skyguard's Drape (30 minute cooldown). This new method not only allows you to wear any cloak you like, the effect is usable once every minute.
Both of the above items are yellow when trained at 380.
390
At this point, you can learn another belt "enchant." This does not stack with any other belt "enchant" that you can produce, although again, because the belt buckles do not count as enchants, you can have one of each.
The Personal Electromagnetic Pulse Generator will stun nearby mechanical entities for three seconds. This is its only function, and does not work on vehicles or seige weapons. It would be especially useful while questing through Northrend, or while farming mechanicals for parts in an area like the aforementioned Geyser Fields of the Borean Tundra.
This schematic is yellow when trained.
400
Also yellow at the time of training is the Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket. This glove "enchant" will take the place of a traditional enchant or armor kit, but effectively gives you a ranged weapon that deals 1035 to 1265 damage, usable once per minute. It is also an instant cast.
Not only is this useful for classes that have trouble pulling from a distance, it is also a nice boost in overall damage. Place the rocket onto your gloves, put the icon into your bar, and all of a sudden you have a 1-1.2k burst of damage every minute. It is also useful for runners and pulling mobs out of the sky.
It is important to note that this item has no minimum range, and so can be fired by melee at point blank range, although it will reset your swing timer as well as activating the global cooldown.
On the positive side, it can crit!
This replaces the old Goblin Rocket Launcher, a trinket, that also gave 45 stamina and a 3 second stun effect. In essence, you are swapping out a low-level trinket and a glove enchant, for a slightly less powerful but very stylish, fun and useful "enchant," along with the latest and greatest trinket of your choice.
If rockets don't get your blood flowing, you could instead "enchant" your gloves with the Hyperspeed Accelerator. This does not activate the GCD, and awards you, upon use, 340 haste rating for 8 seconds every 2 minutes.
This will stack with other haste-increasing enchants, potions, food, and talents and abilities, such as is being discussed in the comments on Wowhead.
Both of these glove modifications are usable in arenas. Also, if you happen to be a Blacksmith-Engineer, these will stack with your Socket Gloves ability.
405
The Nitro Boosts can be trained at 405, yellow quality, and are used to modify your boots. Again, this takes the place of a regular enchant, but gives you an ability similar to Sprint, although it is only a 5 second duration with a 5 minute cooldown.
The speed boost is 150%, which is much greater than Sprint. This will take the place of a traditional enchant, but does allow the Engineer to wear any boots he or she pleases, rather than being stuck with Rocket Boots Xtreme or Rocket Boots Xtreme Lite.
415
You might consider making a pile of Scrapbot Construction Kits. For 10 Saronite Bars, you get a stack of 5 bots that will live for five minutes, and buy your junk. It will not repair for you, but can be summoned every 15 minutes. This is great for extended farming.
425
At 425, MOLL-E, the portable 5-minute mailbox usable once per day, is an excellent way to gain one skill point. You will be everyone's favorite raider when you walk in with MOLL-E and a stack of Field Repair Bot 110Gs.
While the cooldown isn't ideal, the fact that MOLL-E is a keepable item rather than a consumable is a huge plus, and this is something that Engineers have been wanting for a long time. Unfortunately, she doesn't currently fit in your Engineering bag, although I'm sure that will change.
The Gnomish X-Ray Specs, while they do actually replace your head piece, let you see everyone in their underwear. 'Nough said.
You will also be able to make a nifty frost resist helm, Mechanized Snow Goggles, which should be helpful for parts of Naxxramas.
You might also make a Global Thermal Sapper Charge, that will not only inflict AoE damage, it will also affect seige weaponry.
440
Epic goggles become available for you to create.
450
At a whopping 450 skill level, you will be able to create either the Mechano-hog or the Mekgineer's Chopper, provided that you are exalted with either the Horde Expedition or the Alliance Vanguard, which you should be by that point.
These cost a bunch to make, can be sold to non-Engineers for even more, and even have their own achievement, Get to the Choppa!.
