Vets?

I wanted to clarify in a post here why some nights, different people are allowed, or not allowed, into Karazhan.

To me, there are several classifications of raiders. There are vets, non-vets, and alts. If you want to know my definition of a vet, here it is. A vet is a dedicated raider who has been with Terra Nova, has seen the content in Karazhan, and has proven him/herself to be reliable, hard-working, and group-oriented. There are several people who are not vets right now, but who are very very close. These people have earned the right to join us deeper into Karazhan. They are helpful, they take instructions, they have worked on their spec and their gear on their own.

Non-vets aren't necessarily poor players. They in many ways could be noobs. They could be people who simply haven't been with TN long enough to prove themselves. These people I want to have join our raids in order to prove themselves. They need to be able to see what TN stands for and to join in the comradery. At the same time, they need to have some incentive to improve. Many people have the misconception that better gear is all it takes to improve. Seeing a player improve their skills by adjusting talent spec, spell rotation, and take interest in improving is what makes a non-vet into a vet....not simply the amount of time that they've raided with us.

Finally, the topic of alts. One might think that they belong with the vets, since they have been around as vets for a long time. They have seen the content...they do all that is required of them to be a vet. However, there is one fundamental difference. The gear that they acquire is not going to be used to help the raid. The goal of the raid is to see 25 man content. Having gear is necessary to do that. When an alt is running Karazhan, it's acquiring gear, which is fine. But it isn't acquiring gear to benefit the guild's raid. That's the fundamental difference.

I hope this explains the raid makeup that has been happening. Fortunately, the influx of non-vets is slowly starting to prove themselves and are drastically improving. And I don't believe this will be an issue as long as everyone works and pulls their own weight.

As we merge groups together, we may not be able to continue this policy, which I would understand...it's a bit heavy handed. But I do feel it's a fair way of getting players to work harder and to improve.

Rough Night in Kara

Well, last night we downed 3 bosses...Nightbane, Curator, and Shade. We wiped on Nightbane 6 times or so....the first time we've wiped on him in weeks. Initially, it was because we underestimated him. We tried having our prot warrior sit and having our DPS warrior tank. He couldn't generate enough threat though. We also had our third healer be a shadow priest, who had never really healed before.

Even when we brought in our prot warrior and resto druid to replace them, we still wiped twice. Once we finally downed him, we went and one shotted Curator, and proceeded to wiped twice on Shade.

It would be easy to blame on disconnects (twice we were on the brink of wiping, and I DCed removing any shadow of a doubt). But I was definitely rusty from being away for a week. Isn't it funny...you do something just about everyday for a long time, step away for a week, and it's tough to get back in the groove. Tonight we're going back in there, and I know we'll tear the place apart.

The big thing I want to say, is everyone stayed positive. It would be easy to have called the night off when we couldn't even kill Nightbane after 5 tries. We were all pretty frustrated. But everyone kept with it. We probably could have gone on, but I was exhausted and needed to rest. I was pleased that we got through Shade, so now we only have to kill Maiden, Illhoof, Chess, Prince, and Netherspite. We can definitely do that tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks for hanging tough guys.

5 mans: Useless after Karazhan?

The general progression of gear in WoW goes something like this:

If instance X lets more people in than instance Y, it has better gear.

This was true back at 60, with the 20 mans being a lot easier and less rewarding than 40 man content.

It's generally true now, with the 5 mans being easier than the 10 man (Karazhan), which is easier than 25 man content.

Back at level 60, once you'd been through Molten Core 50,000 times, there was really not much point in running the 5 man instances. There were maybe 2-3 items that could be found in the 5 /10man instances that could even compare with the stuff in ZG or MC.

So people didn't really run them. If they did, it was because they were bored or trying to farm up some cash. I know some people took to making naked runs, or running a 5 man with 2 or 3 people. But you didn't run the instances for gear.

So now at 70 with the new heroic instances, has it changed? Is it still worth going back? Not really for the gear. Karazhan gear is the same item level as the best epics from any heroic. So if you're clearing Karazhan, what's the big deal?

I've come up with a list showing why you should still run 5 mans here and there.

1. You are 20% of the group. You are an integral part of the group. It's a lot easier for someone to go AFK during a Karazhan run and still survive. In a 5 man, everyone has to pull their own weight, or else the difference will be very noticable. It's a really good place to make sure that you're pulling your own weight

2. They are relaxing. If you mess up a boss pull in 10 or 25 man content, often the fight's over before it's begun. 5 mans are a little more laidback. You can have a good time and goof around...it takes away some of the stress from the raiding.

3. They can be used for experimenting with your playstyle. If you're thinking about respeccing, or trying a new spell rotation, instead of trying it in 10 or 25 man content where you can't often afford to mess up, try it out in an easier 5 man. It'll make a big difference, since you'll have plenty of time to get used to things.

4. Heroic gems. Sure, you might only be able to use 2-3 of them, but why not grab them and toss them on the piece of gear that you'll use the most? A tiny stat increase can't hurt, right?

5. Primal nethers and patterns: Nothing wrong with snagging some money makers. Green drops, shards, and loot money can help too, especially if there isn't much of a repair bill.

6. Group cohesion. Rubix and I have run so many times together, that we know what each other is going to do. If he's going to AOE and pull agro, I usually know ahead of time. If I get healing agro on a group, I know not to fade until after he's frost nova'd them to see if that works first. Playing with the same people who you run 10 and 25 mans with can really make a difference in a tough spot, since you know how everyone will react to given situations.

7. You're required to use more abilities. Crowd control, counterspells, strange pulls, mobs with weird characteristics. It makes you think more. It makes you use your full arsonal of abilities. On some raid bosses, it's /target, 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1... or 1 2 3 3 1 2 3 3... 5 mans generally require you to watch your environment more, and to be on your toes. 10 and 25 mans are more controlled than 5 mans. You can easily be caught in a double pull if you aren't careful.

I'm certain there are more reasons, but I'd love to see more 5 mans occurring. Especially heroics. Some of those heroics are harder than Karazhan or Gruul. Running them will only help you improve the way you play.

Armor/Stamina worth it?

The final piece of my weapon analysis includes a subject that's a lot bigger than just weapons. It's a subject that most people don't think about too much. Stamina for healers. Is it worthless? It is essential? The answer to both of these is yes.

I'll start talking about the Primal Mooncloth set for priests. It's truly an amazing set. You get a lot of +healing and a lot of +mp5, especially due to the set bonus. Definitely better gear than anything you can find in Karazhan.

One of the reasons it has so much +healing and mp5, is because it has no stamina. If the set had around 30 stamina, which brings it up to around the level of int and spirit, it would have to lose 20 stat points. This means losing perhaps 40 +healing on the set, which is a serious nerf to the effectiveness of the set.

So why bother with stamina? There are a lot of fights that you should never need stamina for. Maulgar certainly not, where if you're getting hit, it means someone messed up. Most Kara fights don't require too much. So why nerf your other stats for stamina?

But what about the fights like Gruul? Where it's likely that you'll take a lot of damage all at once. Remember that a dead healer does no damage.

Most people mix and match their stamina and non-stamina gear. But say for example you have the healing shoulders from the Curator:
28 int
22 spirit
57 healing
10 mp5

And you have a chance at the tier 4 shoulders from Maulgar:
19 stam
30 int
22 spirit
53 healing
red/blue sockets, bonus: 4 stam

The two pieces are very close, but the 10 mp5 really pushes the Curator shoulders above the tier 4. However, it may be worth picking up the tier 4 shoulders, if no one else needs them.

I am of the opinion that healers, if they can afford the bag space and they have access to the gear, to have a stamina healing set, and a regular healing set. On the fights when survival is questionable, it's essential to have enough stamina to ensure your survival. On fights when you need to maximize your mana and healing efficiency as much as possible, and survival isn't an issue, stamina is an unwanted commodity.

Before you ask, yes I'm crazy. But on trash mobs in Karazhan, I'm always very happy to have my stamina set available to me. I use Item Rack to keep my sets straight.

I follow the same opinion on shields for shammies/pallies. There are certain fights when stamina and armor is essential. If you're going to be hit by a melee damage, throw on your shield. The nice thing about weapons, you can toss them on when you get agro on something if your reflexes are quick enough, and it may save your life. I don't know a ton about healing shields, but sometimes I wish I could wear one.

Spellsurge

This enchant is just like everything else that is controversial, much like Lightwell and Circle of Healing. Some people swear by it, others swear at it. Let me give some basic facts on the enchant itself.

Here is what the text of the enchant reads:

Spellsurge: Use: Teaches you how to permanently enchant a Melee Weapon to have a 3% chance on spellcast to restore 100 mana to all party members over 10 seconds

But this isn't necessarily true. The actual text should read as follows:

Spellsurge: Use: Teaches you how to permanently enchant a Melee Weapon to have a 15% chance on spellcast to restore 100 mana to all party members over 10 seconds. This ability has a hidden 45(ish) second cooldown.

This means that the ability will more consistently provide around 100 mana every minute to every party member.

But when a caster looks at Spellsurge, they also see +40 spell damage, or +50 to a type of damage (fire, frost, arcane, shadow), or +81 healing. Is +81 healing worth 8.5 mana per 5 to each party member? The basic answer is no.

So why get the enchant? Here's why.

If you read my last post on castable weapon swapping, you saw that having several weapons with different enchants can help you during a fight. Having spellsurge on a weapon helps too.

Once spellsurge procs, it attaches to you a 45 second cooldown. During those 45 seconds, you can toss on a weapon that has your +81 healing on it. At the end of those 45 seconds, toss on your spellsurge weapon again. You get the same 100 mana per minute for the party, but you only lose the +81 to healing for around 33% of the time. So in a sense, you're losing around +27 healing for the 8.5 mp5. A MUCH different story.

Again, castable weapon swapping comes to the rescue, with a spellsurge feature. You set your spellsurge weapon in the slot, and it swaps it in and out automatically, without you needing to worry about the 45 second timer.

I personally have spellsurge on my spirit/regen weapon, and have +81 healing on my primary healing weapon. I'd recommend giving it a try if you plan on playing with a healing weapon and a regen weapon, and if you have no qualms about using a mod to help you with the weapon swapping function.

(My personal opinion about mods is that Blizz implemented macros and an API for a reason, so I have no problems with people using mods as long as it doesn't impede their ability to function without them.)

Caster Weapons: Castable Weapon Swapping

The moment you've all been waiting for...my opinion on healer weapons. This may affect DPS casters slightly, but I don't believe it's a huge deal.

When you think about it, wouldn't it be nice to be able to switch gear mid-battle? For hybrid classes, this would be amazing. Druids would be able to start out DPS casting, switch to healing if necessary, and then switch to tanking if absolutely necessary. Overpowered? Yep. This is why it isn't possible. You are dedicated to a role at the beginning of a fight for the most part.

But a lot of people forget about one subtle detail. Weapons can be changed when fighting.

Warriors know this. Switching from a DPS weapon to a shield on agro gain. Druids often know this...when they change forms, Item Rack can be configured to change to a tanking weapon when changed to bear, a healing weapon when you go back into a regular form, and a DPS cat weapon when changed to cat.

But very few other people know about this. One example of an amazing way to use this is a mage tossing on a spirit weapon and a spirit wand when they evocate. This can generate a lot of extra mana during an evocate, and then after the evocate is done, swap back to a DPS weapon.

Druids may think to do this as well, during an innervate. It can gain a lot of extra mana as well.

But what about priests? Paladins? Shamans? Can anyone benefit from this weapon swapping knowledge?

Lets think about what stats benefit healers? Stamina? Situationally (stay tuned for more on this) Mostly, it's intellect, spirit (for priests and druids), +healing, and if you're a paladin +crit. Why intellect? Sure it gives you crit, but a marginal amount. Usually you get +int for the extra mana. But you only need the extra mana when your mana bar is full, right? If you're at 50% mana, the extra int doesn't help, right? Lets move on.

Spirit. Great for regen. Helpful in fights when mana isn't an issue? Not at all. If your mana bar is at 90%, why bother with it too much?

And finally +healing. This is important all the time. Every heal you cast.

So what conclusion can come of this? Here's what I say: You should regularly use 3 weapons during a difficult boss fight.

You're saying, that's insane. Well, maybe. But here's why.

1. Intellect weapon. Get a weapon that has decent healing stats, but a ton of +int. Toss the +int weapon chant on it. Use it only when you're full on mana. This means at the beginning of the fight, and possibly after an innervate/shadowfiend/mana pot, or whatever gets you back to full mana. Having the extra 50 int or so means a nice extra 750 mana, which is worth at least a heal or two.

2. Healing weapon. Use this as your primary weapon. Make your heals as big as you can, and use it as the default.

3. Regen weapon. Get as much spirit as you can on it, and toss either +20 spirit or spellsurge on it (more on spellsurge later). Use this when you're low on mana, or when you get an innervate, spirit tap, or whatever makes your spirit amazing.

So you're saying "I can't do that...it's too hard to keep track of." I kept track of it manually for a while, but it does get difficult under stressful circumstances (Karazhan, Gruul, etc). In comes Castable Weapon Swapper. It's a mod that allows you to configure 3 weapons. One for high mana, one for primary, and one for low mana. Install it, type /cws, and set your weapons in there. It does all of the swapping for you. You can adjust your mana percentages yourself as to when you want your weapons swapped. It takes all of the thinking out of it, but still gives great results.

Many people think I'm crazy and go overboard. But think about it...weapons give you the most bang for your buck than any slot. It's not unheard of to get +450 healing out of a one handed weapon (prince or maiden weapon+ healing chant). Plus the weapon enchants are the most powerful for any item slot. It's more of a buff than you'd think. Give it a shot...you may find it works better than you believed at first.

Caster Weapons: DPS

Live from the sunny beaches of the Outer Banks, I've decided to entertain everyone with a mid-week post. One of the requested topics I've had is on weapons for casters.

What's better? A staff? Or a 1h and offhand?

There are many schools of thought regarding this. The primary one is the most correct...you use the one that is the best for you. If you have an epic offhand and a decent 1-hander, and an epic staff drops, it'll probably be an upgrade.

But what's better to go after? A good staff? Or a good 1h and good offhand?

For the most part, staves gives more stat bonuses, whereas a 1h/OH combo is much better at giving more of one stat or two. For example, if you wanted to get a lot of +damage, a 1H/OH combo will get you more. If you want more +stam, +int, +hit, etc., a staff is usually better.

It's usually best to see what your options are, and look at what you'll be gaining/losing if you go each route. It's interesting sometimes to note how a blue offhand and an epic 1Her can be better for a shadow priest than an epic staff. Why? The staff has a lot of crit, which isn't worth as much for a shadow priest...the 1h/oh combo gives more +damage, which is much better for a shadow priest.

In summary, the general rule of lots of different stats vs. maximizing one stat works often, but it's usually best to compare the two options as if you're comparing two headpieces or trinkets.

Healers....I'll get to you later this week. Much more to say about that.