For those of you who follow my blog, it's about that time. I've run out of topics for now. My brain won't work this morning. So if you'd like to see a post about any topic in particular, please let me know. I'd love to do some research about something that I don't quite understand.
For now.....it's breakfast time.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Friday, July 6, 2007
Respec possible, can't beat a warrior
Well, last night Azi and I spent about an hour just dueling. We worked on mechanics against a warrior. I didn't beat him in a single match, but I learned a lot. We learned that against a paladin, the only way to win is to run him oom. Fortunately, Gullkurack picked up a pet that stacks poisons. We beat a warrior/paladin team last night twice. Mind you they weren't geared exceptionally well, but I got a great trinket off at just the right time during one of them, and the other time I got lucky with some kiting. Gully did a great job of running the paladin low.
I am considering respeccing a few points to make myself a lot better. I'm thinking of moving 2 points from Meditation (4% mana reduction to instant cast spells) into Imp Mana Burn. A 2 second cast is incredible compared to a 3 second cast, and I should be able to beat any DPS/priest combo this way. I'm also considering moving some points from threat/dispel reduction into Martyrdom (when I'm crit, I have 6 seconds of time when spell pushback doesn't occur, and I get 20% resistance to interrupts). I don't think I'm going to go way out on a limb and get the faster Mass Dispel, but I'll be thinking about it.
I wanted to mention one final note that I find interesting. I've often thought to myself that if I focused on PVP, I would be better off. We won one game last night that we shouldn't have in the end. It was a warlock/shadow priest. About 2 minutes into the fight, we were all oom completely. Against a warlock, it's likely that we'd lose since the priest can renew the lock and he can get some mana for DPS. However, I tossed on my PVE gear. Now there were a few times that if they would have fear-locked me, I would have been toast. However, I started to regen mana a LOT faster than they did. Ultimately, this led to us having a lot more healing than the other team did, and we eventually killed them slowly. It makes me feel good to know that having good PVE gear CAN make a difference in arena, even if it's only one match.
I am considering respeccing a few points to make myself a lot better. I'm thinking of moving 2 points from Meditation (4% mana reduction to instant cast spells) into Imp Mana Burn. A 2 second cast is incredible compared to a 3 second cast, and I should be able to beat any DPS/priest combo this way. I'm also considering moving some points from threat/dispel reduction into Martyrdom (when I'm crit, I have 6 seconds of time when spell pushback doesn't occur, and I get 20% resistance to interrupts). I don't think I'm going to go way out on a limb and get the faster Mass Dispel, but I'll be thinking about it.
I wanted to mention one final note that I find interesting. I've often thought to myself that if I focused on PVP, I would be better off. We won one game last night that we shouldn't have in the end. It was a warlock/shadow priest. About 2 minutes into the fight, we were all oom completely. Against a warlock, it's likely that we'd lose since the priest can renew the lock and he can get some mana for DPS. However, I tossed on my PVE gear. Now there were a few times that if they would have fear-locked me, I would have been toast. However, I started to regen mana a LOT faster than they did. Ultimately, this led to us having a lot more healing than the other team did, and we eventually killed them slowly. It makes me feel good to know that having good PVE gear CAN make a difference in arena, even if it's only one match.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Hunter and Priest 2v2, A good match? Or a death wish?
Gullkurack and I have been doing 2v2 PVP for a long time. We really only get 10 matches in a week, but it's been for a large number of weeks. I think we're starting to get to know each other very well and how to complement each other.
Last night we had a frustrating night. Our first game was against a rogue hunter. They burst me down and had me stun locked just about the entire first 15 seconds. Cheap Shot, Kidney Shot, Intimidation, Blind at 20%, one shot for the kill.
Then we went up against a warrior pally three times. Each time there was nothing we could really do to win. Viper sting doesn't work, because pallies can dispel them. Frost traps work against the paladin after they trinket out of one and bubble out of another. But by then I'm usually dead.
I do a pretty good job of kiting a warrior usually. I stay mounted as long as I can. Usually he ends up charging Gully and then coming after me for a zerker charge. If I could stay away from him indefinitely, then we'd be fine. The problem is, eventually the paladin will stun me and the warrior will catch up. Then I'm toast. The warrior gets hamstring on me. Even if I trinket out of it, he'll zerker charge me again and hamstring again. Then, if the warrior is doing a sick amount of damage (most are), I can't heal through it. I can't fear the warrior away because of a warrior's amazing anti-fear abilities. So I'm stuck with a mac truck pounding away at me, while my healing is 50% gimped.
Paladins have a much easier time itemizing for PVP. I have excellent PVP gear. I have 10K HP, 300 resilience, and a 9K mana pool. Paladins always have over 10K mana, and they have plate, so they are much better against a warrior/rogue/hunter survivability-wise.
So I'm totally frustrate with being a priest last night. Very depressed.
However, I read world of ming articles all the time. I read this one this morning: http://www.worldofming.com/?p=541
It's an article about a dwarf priest and dwarf hunter doing exceptionally well in arena. Now unfortunately, I'm not a dwarf. This makes me vulnerable to poisons and fears, which are a huge part of PVP. However, the warrior/pally combo can be beaten by a good hunter/priest combo, according to them. I have yet to see how personally. They are saying that we can do it if Blessing of Freedom is dispelled, and the warrior is Frost Trapped the whole time. I still don't see how this makes the whole Hamstring into Berzerker charge a non-issue. Maybe it isn't a non issue, but one that needs to be looked at in more detail. Nevertheless, it gives me hope. Gully, we need to get you a pet that poisons! That way your viper sting can't be removed.
Last night we had a frustrating night. Our first game was against a rogue hunter. They burst me down and had me stun locked just about the entire first 15 seconds. Cheap Shot, Kidney Shot, Intimidation, Blind at 20%, one shot for the kill.
Then we went up against a warrior pally three times. Each time there was nothing we could really do to win. Viper sting doesn't work, because pallies can dispel them. Frost traps work against the paladin after they trinket out of one and bubble out of another. But by then I'm usually dead.
I do a pretty good job of kiting a warrior usually. I stay mounted as long as I can. Usually he ends up charging Gully and then coming after me for a zerker charge. If I could stay away from him indefinitely, then we'd be fine. The problem is, eventually the paladin will stun me and the warrior will catch up. Then I'm toast. The warrior gets hamstring on me. Even if I trinket out of it, he'll zerker charge me again and hamstring again. Then, if the warrior is doing a sick amount of damage (most are), I can't heal through it. I can't fear the warrior away because of a warrior's amazing anti-fear abilities. So I'm stuck with a mac truck pounding away at me, while my healing is 50% gimped.
Paladins have a much easier time itemizing for PVP. I have excellent PVP gear. I have 10K HP, 300 resilience, and a 9K mana pool. Paladins always have over 10K mana, and they have plate, so they are much better against a warrior/rogue/hunter survivability-wise.
So I'm totally frustrate with being a priest last night. Very depressed.
However, I read world of ming articles all the time. I read this one this morning: http://www.worldofming.com/?p=541
It's an article about a dwarf priest and dwarf hunter doing exceptionally well in arena. Now unfortunately, I'm not a dwarf. This makes me vulnerable to poisons and fears, which are a huge part of PVP. However, the warrior/pally combo can be beaten by a good hunter/priest combo, according to them. I have yet to see how personally. They are saying that we can do it if Blessing of Freedom is dispelled, and the warrior is Frost Trapped the whole time. I still don't see how this makes the whole Hamstring into Berzerker charge a non-issue. Maybe it isn't a non issue, but one that needs to be looked at in more detail. Nevertheless, it gives me hope. Gully, we need to get you a pet that poisons! That way your viper sting can't be removed.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Holy Nova and Lightwell - Worth 1 Point?
I had an excellent discussion with Yimii concerning priest talents. She brought a lot of things back into my brain for me to keep in mind. I don't think I'll be respeccing anytime soon, but for next time, I'll keep it in mind.
A player only gets 51 talent points to use or abuse. Talents are truly where a player gets to customize their character. They can completely change who they are through their talents, and what their role should be. It's amazing to me to think of how important some of these talents are. I was thinking about it one day, how truly impossible it would be to have no talents at all and to see how the game would end up. There are too many essential talents though to even consider this.
As such, it would seem that you can't waste a single point. Even one point can make a huge difference in one's game plan.
Yimii's point was that Holy Nova and Lightwell are so situational, why even take them? Holy Nova is incredibly mana intensive, and it really doesn't do all that much. Lightwell is also very situational...I admit I really only use it for Attumen and Maiden, and we don't even really "need" it for these fights. SO why should I waste my talents on them? Instead of getting Holy Nova, I could get an extra 1% chance to crit on my holy spells. Instead of getting Lightwell, I could get 10% mana reduction on Prayer of Healing and Prayer of Mending. So why do I get them?
I think the reason is for utility. There are certain situations where there is no alternative but to use Holy Nova. Let's redefine what sucks about Holy Nova:
1. It's mana inefficient
2. It doesn't do very much damage.
3. It's mana inefficient
4. Like any other AOE spell, it breaks crowd control easily.
5. It's VERY mana inefficient.
However, there are times when it becomes very useful.
1. Priests have NO AOE otherwise. While mana inefficient, it can become useful if the mage dies and you absolutely need some AOE. Sure you won't be killing guys with 5K HP, but you can kill some things with 1K HP, like bugs and snakes. Holy Nova is huge in a BG or arena against a hunter that knows that snake trap means death for a priest trying to cast anything. Holy Nova those suckers and they are dead.
2. It's a spammable instantcast spell. Sure it's mana inefficient, but if you're trying to kite something, and your Renew is on you already, and your shield and POM are on cooldown, you don't have much of a choice. Holy Nova is your only other option (unless you have Circle of Healing, but no one has that.)
3. It does no threat. There are plenty of times when a mob does AOE, and I know threat is an issue. Prayer of Healing is a great spell, but it becomes an agro machine if you use it and everyone needs healing. Holy Nova is a way to heal everyone a little and generate no threat at all.
These three things make it worthwhile to me.
On to Lightwell, which will be shorter.
First of all, I need to remember to use it more often on trash pulls, and not just for bosses. I've been running a lot with Patricles lately, and tossing a Lightwell his way is just like Nermal or Murien tossing an innervate my way. He can refill his health and mana and I don't need to waste my mana healing him. Another nice thing it's used for is a DPS rogue who knows that just before he dies, he needs to get away and bandage. Usually bandages only go so far. A lightwell + bandage can usually fill a rogue up. This is why Maiden fight is very useful to have a Lightwell in. Healers don't have to worry as much with the melee classes.
As such, I personally feel that these spells are worth spending 2 of my valuable points. I'm not losing anything completely critical, and I'm getting some utility out of them. I hope I can keep thinking about every one of my talents and their value, because things change as people get different gear even. If I get more +crit, I may think about putting points in Inspiration. Until then, I'm content the way I am.
A player only gets 51 talent points to use or abuse. Talents are truly where a player gets to customize their character. They can completely change who they are through their talents, and what their role should be. It's amazing to me to think of how important some of these talents are. I was thinking about it one day, how truly impossible it would be to have no talents at all and to see how the game would end up. There are too many essential talents though to even consider this.
As such, it would seem that you can't waste a single point. Even one point can make a huge difference in one's game plan.
Yimii's point was that Holy Nova and Lightwell are so situational, why even take them? Holy Nova is incredibly mana intensive, and it really doesn't do all that much. Lightwell is also very situational...I admit I really only use it for Attumen and Maiden, and we don't even really "need" it for these fights. SO why should I waste my talents on them? Instead of getting Holy Nova, I could get an extra 1% chance to crit on my holy spells. Instead of getting Lightwell, I could get 10% mana reduction on Prayer of Healing and Prayer of Mending. So why do I get them?
I think the reason is for utility. There are certain situations where there is no alternative but to use Holy Nova. Let's redefine what sucks about Holy Nova:
1. It's mana inefficient
2. It doesn't do very much damage.
3. It's mana inefficient
4. Like any other AOE spell, it breaks crowd control easily.
5. It's VERY mana inefficient.
However, there are times when it becomes very useful.
1. Priests have NO AOE otherwise. While mana inefficient, it can become useful if the mage dies and you absolutely need some AOE. Sure you won't be killing guys with 5K HP, but you can kill some things with 1K HP, like bugs and snakes. Holy Nova is huge in a BG or arena against a hunter that knows that snake trap means death for a priest trying to cast anything. Holy Nova those suckers and they are dead.
2. It's a spammable instantcast spell. Sure it's mana inefficient, but if you're trying to kite something, and your Renew is on you already, and your shield and POM are on cooldown, you don't have much of a choice. Holy Nova is your only other option (unless you have Circle of Healing, but no one has that.)
3. It does no threat. There are plenty of times when a mob does AOE, and I know threat is an issue. Prayer of Healing is a great spell, but it becomes an agro machine if you use it and everyone needs healing. Holy Nova is a way to heal everyone a little and generate no threat at all.
These three things make it worthwhile to me.
On to Lightwell, which will be shorter.
First of all, I need to remember to use it more often on trash pulls, and not just for bosses. I've been running a lot with Patricles lately, and tossing a Lightwell his way is just like Nermal or Murien tossing an innervate my way. He can refill his health and mana and I don't need to waste my mana healing him. Another nice thing it's used for is a DPS rogue who knows that just before he dies, he needs to get away and bandage. Usually bandages only go so far. A lightwell + bandage can usually fill a rogue up. This is why Maiden fight is very useful to have a Lightwell in. Healers don't have to worry as much with the melee classes.
As such, I personally feel that these spells are worth spending 2 of my valuable points. I'm not losing anything completely critical, and I'm getting some utility out of them. I hope I can keep thinking about every one of my talents and their value, because things change as people get different gear even. If I get more +crit, I may think about putting points in Inspiration. Until then, I'm content the way I am.
Monday, July 2, 2007
Why not go Disc?
I was asked this by Patricles a little while back. I'm not positive if he was referring to PVP, but I decided to take a serious look. What I found was I suppose not completely startling to me, but I was amazed at how much healing I would probably lose.
I would lose the following if I went 41/20/0
+5% Spirit
Improved Death
25% of my Spirit giving me +damage and healing (buffed around 150)
10% of healing increased (before +healing applies, but it's still around +200 healing on my GHeal)
6% chance on Greater Heal, Flash Heal, or Binding Heal to have a free next Greater Heal, Flash Heal, and Binding Heal (this is how I base my regen periods for boss fights, and is probably the most critical of all these points.)
Lightwell
An additional 12% of my +healing added to Greater Heal, and an additional 6% added to Flash Heal.
That's a lot of healing. My heals would probably be 80% of the size that they are now without all of that above. What would I gain? Mostly stuff for PVP and lolsmite. While I enjoy a good lolsmite build, right now I'm focused on my healing in Karazhan. Back in Molten Core, it wasn't a big deal for 1/40th of the raid to be an offspec. Now, being 10% or 6% of a group makes me feel far more important and essential. Sorry disc, I knew thee once, but I love my PVE spec.
I would lose the following if I went 41/20/0
+5% Spirit
Improved Death
25% of my Spirit giving me +damage and healing (buffed around 150)
10% of healing increased (before +healing applies, but it's still around +200 healing on my GHeal)
6% chance on Greater Heal, Flash Heal, or Binding Heal to have a free next Greater Heal, Flash Heal, and Binding Heal (this is how I base my regen periods for boss fights, and is probably the most critical of all these points.)
Lightwell
An additional 12% of my +healing added to Greater Heal, and an additional 6% added to Flash Heal.
That's a lot of healing. My heals would probably be 80% of the size that they are now without all of that above. What would I gain? Mostly stuff for PVP and lolsmite. While I enjoy a good lolsmite build, right now I'm focused on my healing in Karazhan. Back in Molten Core, it wasn't a big deal for 1/40th of the raid to be an offspec. Now, being 10% or 6% of a group makes me feel far more important and essential. Sorry disc, I knew thee once, but I love my PVE spec.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Healing Intense Fights - Out of Practice?
Now that we're complete with the Theorycraft series (you won't see the last of the Theorycraft) I can start commenting on where I'm headed. I just hit exalted with the Aldor today, so now I can make the better spell thread, and get the better shoulder enchant. I'm also 4 days away from the final piece of Primal Mooncloth. That'll be nice.
So being 4 days and 15 Primal Lifes away from an additional 54 +healing, 5 stam, and 1 mp5 (losing 12 int and 7 spirit) is nice. This may seems like a marginal upgrade, but the 3 piece Primal Mooncloth bonus will also add approximately 25 mp5 (5% of 500 MP5 outside of FSR). This will be HUGE.
It's a good thing too, because healing today in Karazhan was ROUGH. OK, I admit, we downed Nightbane, Prince, and Illhoof successfully. We one shotted Nightbane, who really isn't all that hard surprisingly. Then we wiped again and again on Prince and Illhoof, until we had a little luck in both cases and got them down.
I have the feeling I know what made the difference between tonight and other nights. No Murien. Seriously, he's that important to our group. We survived without him, but it was tough. I went through 3 mana pots for the successful Prince attempt, and was OOM and let Wynri die at 1%. I went through a mana pot for the last successful attempt on Illhoof, which we were helped through because Yimii was sacrificed three times and Iceblocked out of 2 of them.
Nermal is an excellent healer for being a moonkin. Akime is a good healer for being enhancement specced. Orelon is out of practice a little. But we made it through with their quality healing, despite them not being totally specced that way.
As a result of my being the only specced healer, it was very mana intensive. It got me thinking that I really need to look hard about my methods of getting mana back. Chuckles is awesome, but that's a 5 min cooldown. I love my trinkets, especially my Darkmoon card when it procs. But I think I need 2 trinkets that I have to proc for mana. Random chance just isn't enough for reliability. Mana on demand is what I need.
So I'm looking really hard at the Shade's trinket. It rewards me for spamming spells. The more I cast, the more MP5 I get back. I have enough shorter cast spells to make good use of it. If I cast 10 spells in the 20 second window, that's 210 MP5 for 20 seconds. That's a grand total of approximately 1260 mana since for the original 20 seconds you're getting around half of the regen. That's a lot of mana on demand.
So here's the cool part. I have a trinket that rewards me for not casting at all. This would give me a trinket to reward me for casting a ton. If I have them both on, depending on the situation, it would be nice to have them both available.
The darkmoon card has done well for me, but I hope soon I can retire it and get something that I can use on demand.
So being 4 days and 15 Primal Lifes away from an additional 54 +healing, 5 stam, and 1 mp5 (losing 12 int and 7 spirit) is nice. This may seems like a marginal upgrade, but the 3 piece Primal Mooncloth bonus will also add approximately 25 mp5 (5% of 500 MP5 outside of FSR). This will be HUGE.
It's a good thing too, because healing today in Karazhan was ROUGH. OK, I admit, we downed Nightbane, Prince, and Illhoof successfully. We one shotted Nightbane, who really isn't all that hard surprisingly. Then we wiped again and again on Prince and Illhoof, until we had a little luck in both cases and got them down.
I have the feeling I know what made the difference between tonight and other nights. No Murien. Seriously, he's that important to our group. We survived without him, but it was tough. I went through 3 mana pots for the successful Prince attempt, and was OOM and let Wynri die at 1%. I went through a mana pot for the last successful attempt on Illhoof, which we were helped through because Yimii was sacrificed three times and Iceblocked out of 2 of them.
Nermal is an excellent healer for being a moonkin. Akime is a good healer for being enhancement specced. Orelon is out of practice a little. But we made it through with their quality healing, despite them not being totally specced that way.
As a result of my being the only specced healer, it was very mana intensive. It got me thinking that I really need to look hard about my methods of getting mana back. Chuckles is awesome, but that's a 5 min cooldown. I love my trinkets, especially my Darkmoon card when it procs. But I think I need 2 trinkets that I have to proc for mana. Random chance just isn't enough for reliability. Mana on demand is what I need.
So I'm looking really hard at the Shade's trinket. It rewards me for spamming spells. The more I cast, the more MP5 I get back. I have enough shorter cast spells to make good use of it. If I cast 10 spells in the 20 second window, that's 210 MP5 for 20 seconds. That's a grand total of approximately 1260 mana since for the original 20 seconds you're getting around half of the regen. That's a lot of mana on demand.
So here's the cool part. I have a trinket that rewards me for not casting at all. This would give me a trinket to reward me for casting a ton. If I have them both on, depending on the situation, it would be nice to have them both available.
The darkmoon card has done well for me, but I hope soon I can retire it and get something that I can use on demand.
Caster DPS - An analysis of crit vs. +damage, DPS of a given spell, and more
Last night Rubix and I went into a journey of trying to decide how much crit rating is worth how much +damage. In the end, we made a spreadsheet of how you can determine what a +damage is worth to you, and what a crit rating is worth.
The spreadsheet is here: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pcYUlbKT9HT8hBLLK_njQXQ
All you need to do is view it (I think you may need a gmail address to view it...they may have changed it) download it to Excel, and use it. It's a lot simpler than the one I made for healing long ago.
Some quick notes:
1. This will tell you how much +damage is worth crit rating, but solely based on DPS purposes. It's usually safer to go with +damage, because it's more reliable. If you crit a lot at the beginning of the fight, you run the risk of pulling agro. Additionally, you may have a dry spell of no crits when you really need some damage. This being said, it's up to your discretion.
2. This does not take into account mana efficiency or threat efficiency. It is solely based on DPS maximization.
3. If you have any questions about it, or feel we should post something in the TN forums, let me know. If you find any errors let me know (I think it works alright.)
The spreadsheet is here: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p
All you need to do is view it (I think you may need a gmail address to view it...they may have changed it) download it to Excel, and use it. It's a lot simpler than the one I made for healing long ago.
Some quick notes:
1. This will tell you how much +damage is worth crit rating, but solely based on DPS purposes. It's usually safer to go with +damage, because it's more reliable. If you crit a lot at the beginning of the fight, you run the risk of pulling agro. Additionally, you may have a dry spell of no crits when you really need some damage. This being said, it's up to your discretion.
2. This does not take into account mana efficiency or threat efficiency. It is solely based on DPS maximization.
3. If you have any questions about it, or feel we should post something in the TN forums, let me know. If you find any errors let me know (I think it works alright.)
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