© petewood for my everything else blog..., 2009. | Permalink
Post tags: don't tell my wife, I'm back bitches; this should be fun, warcraft

I logged in just for a few minutes, mostly to buy my 2nd spec, spend the points and to glyph up both specs.

My account still stands as canceled but I am definitely more intrigued than I have been recently. I believe my boredom with the game stemmed from doing the same thing for too long. I’d log in, do my JC daily, heal some battlegrounds (as ret, in PvP holy gear), look for a group for a heroic and very little else.

Since I canceled my account, I changed my habits a bit. I finally dropped mining and picked up enchanting, like I said I would many months ago. I needed to keep a minimum of 1k gold so I could get the dual spec talent so I didn’t want to spend a LOT of gold leveling it. As a result, I spent a lot of time in Sholazar Basin and did all of the quests there, mostly for the green quest rewards. I made a lot of gold in the process.

I manage to get enchanting up to 380. I was able to DE most of the epics that I no longer use. Another 20 points, and I’ll have access to the ring enchants that enchanters can use.

As for which specs I chose, my primary is ret and my secondary is holy. I’d link to my builds, but my armory appears to be borked!

Regarding the ret major glyphs that I will be using, I’m going with Josh’s choices: Glyph of Judgement, Glyph of Consecration, and Glyph of Exorcism. If I find I need more mana, I’ll be using Glyph of Seal of  Blood in lieu of the consecration glyph.

As for my holy major glyphs, I’m going to be using the Glyph of Holy Light, Glyph of Holy Shock and one other, that I haven’t determined yet.

I haven’t purchased the glyphs yet because they are crazy expensive at the moment. The judement glyph was selling for 75g last night and the exorcism glyph was selling for 86g! It serves me right though, I should have been more diligent about buying them before 3.1 came out.

I currently have 25 JC tokens stock-piled. I assumed the new JC resilience patterns would require JC tokens to purchase, but I was wrong so it looks like I’ll be buying dragon’s eyes and selling them so that I can fund my enchanting.

© petewood for my everything else blog..., 2009. | Permalink
Post tags: 3.1, dual spec, glyphs, holy, ret

General

Players at maximum level will now be able to visit their trainer to pay a one-time fee and access the dual talent specialization feature. (1000 gold)
A new Gear Manager feature has been added. Players will now be able to save gear sets for easy gear switching.

Paladin specific

Holy
Skills

• Exorcism can now be used on all targets, but is now a guaranteed critical strike vs Undead and Demon type mobs.
• Judgement of Light now procs off spells as well. (Previously only “attacks” would trigger this)

Talents

• Purifying Power (Tier 6) now reduces the cooldown of your Exorcism and Holy Wrath spells by 17/33%. (Previously increased the critical strike chance of those spells by 10/20%)
• Pure of Heart (Tier 5) now reduces Curse, Poison, and Disease effects by 15/30%. (Previously was 25/50% but did not include poisons)
• Blessed Hands has been moved from Tier 5 to Tier 4 and now reduces the mana cost of Hand of Freedom, Hand of Sacrifice and Hand of Salvation by 15/30% and cooldowns by 10/20%.
• Improved Concentration Aura’s (Tier 4) reduced silence/interrupt effect now works while any aura is active.

Protection
Skills

• New Talent Divinity:Tier 1 protection talent, increases healing done by and to you by 1/2/3/4/5%.
• Shield of Righteousness now deals 130% of block value + 520 at the highest rank. It no longer causes a high amount of threat. (Previously increased damage by a set amount) – interesting here, I wonder what the effect on threat will be with this change?
  
• Blessing of Kings is now a baseline ability. Trainable at level 20. (5 freed talent points)

Talents

• Shield of the Templar (Tier 10) no longer increases the damage of your Holy Shield, Avenger’s Shield and Shield of Righteousness spells. Instead it gives your Avenger’s Shield a 33/66/100% chance to silence targets hit by it for 3 sec. (Silence those casters when you pull them – this will make positioning the groups much easier!)
  
• Judgements of the Just (Tier 10) now reduces the cooldown of your Hammer of Justice by 10 sec, increases the duration of your Seal of Justice effect by 0.5 sec, in addition to its previous effect. (previous effect being “Your Judgement spells also reduce the melee attack speed of the target by 20%.”)
• Avenger’s Shield’s (Tier 9) damage has been increased across all ranks.
• Guarded by the Light (Tier 9) now reduces spell damage taken by 3% and gives a 50% chance to refresh the duration of your Divine Plea when you hit an enemy. (Previously reduced the mana cost of your Holy Shield, Avenger’s Shield and Shield of Righteousness spells by 15%.)
• Holy Shield’s (Tier 7) damage slightly increased across all ranks.
• Ardent Defender (Tier 7) is now a 3 point talent, reducing damage taken by 10/20/30%. (Previously was a 5 point talent) (2 freed talent points)
  
• Sacred Duty (Tier 6) increases stamina by 4% now. (Previously was 3%) (This is rank 1 only, rank 2 still increases stamina by 8%)
  
• One-Handed Weapon Specialization is now a 3 point talent, increasing damage done with 1 handers by 4/7/10%. (Previously was a 5 point talent) (2 freed talent points)
  
• Blessing of Sanctuary (Tier 5) now only grants 2% of maximum displayed mana when the target blocks, parries, or dodges a melee attack. (Previously granted 10 rage or 20 runic power or 2% max mana)
• Divine Guardian (Tier 4) now has been changed to redirect damage “(up to a maximum of 150/300% of the Paladin’s health).” (Previously had no limit)
• Improved Devotion Aura (Tier 4) now increases the amount healed on any target affected by any of your Auras by 2%. (Previously only worked with Devotion Aura active)
• Improved Hammer of Justice (Tier 4) is now a 2 point talent, reducing the cooldown of Hammer of Justice by 10/20 sec. (Previously had a 3rd rank that reduced cooldown by 30 secs)

Retribution
Talents

• Righteous Vengeance (Tier 10) is now a 3 point talent. When your Judgement and Divine Storm spells deal a critical strike, your target will take 10/20/30% additional damage over 8 sec. (Previously a 5 point talent)
• Fanaticism (Tier 8 ) is now a 3 point talent and now increases the critical strike chance of all Judgements capable of a critical hit by 6/12/18% and reduces threat caused by all actions by 10/20/30% except when under the effects of Righteous Fury. (Previously a 5 point talent)
• Improved Retribution Aura has been removed from the game.
• Improved Retribution Aura’s effect has been merged into Sanctified Retribution (Tier 5).
• Divine Purpose has been moved from Tier 5 to Tier 6.

Glyph changes:

• Glyph of Holy Light: Can no longer crit and has had its range updated (range updated is merely a tooltip change, range is still 8 yards).
• Glyph of Exorcism — Increases damage done by Exorcism by 20%. (Old: Your Exorcism also interrupts spellcasting for 2 sec.)
• Glyph of Divinity  — Your Lay on Hands grants twice as much mana as normal and also grants you as much mana as it grants your target. (Old: Your Lay on Hands also grants you as much mana as it grants your target.)
• Glyph of Lay on Hands  — Reduces the cooldown of your Lay on Hands spell by 5 min.(Old: Increases the mana restored by your Lay on Hands spell by 20%)
• Glyph of Beacon of Light *new*  — Increases the duration of Beacon of Light by 30 sec.  (Along with the Glyph of Holy Light, this is a must have)
• Glyph of Hammer of the Righteous *new*  — Your Hammer of the Righteous hits 1 additional target.
• Glyph of Divine Storm *new*  — Your Divine Storm now heals for an additional 15% of the damage it causes.
• Glyph of Shield of Righteousness *new*  — Reduces the mana cost of Shield of Righteousness by 1 to 6%.
• Glyph of Divine Plea *new*  — While Divine Plea is active, you take 3% reduced damage from all sources.
  
• Glyph of Holy Shock *new*  — Reduces the cooldown of Holy Shock by 1 sec. (Along with the Glyph of Holy Light and Glyph of Beacon of light, this is another must have)
• Glyph of Hand of Salvation *new*  — When you cast Hand of Salvation on yourself, it also reduces damage taken by 20%.

There are a couple of Jewelcrafting changes as well- Amulet of True Sight, Prismatic Black Diamond.

There is a world event happening on the PTR as well, the Argent Tournament:

Argent Tournament on the PTR

Quote from: Zarhym (Source)

In patch 3.1, a new world event titled “The Argent Tournament” will be coming to Northrend! This tournament will be live on the 3.1 PTR and open for testing, though certain aspects are still in development. Players will find a host of new features here, including:

• The ability to prove your worth to a capital city of your choosing through our new mounted combat system (still in development)
• New daily quests to construct the great Argent Crusade coliseum for glorious battles to come
• All new rewards – new items, titles, banners, tabards, pets, mounts, and more
• All new achievements
• Many more festivities, and more to come in future content updates!

Players will find the Argent Tournament in Icecrown. Speaking to any Northrend flight master will get you on track to prove your worth to the Argent Crusade, your faction’s leaders, and all denizens of Azeroth!

Edit: Looks like there is a legendary healing item in the game now!

Val’anyr, Gavel of Ancient Kings
According to this spell, a new atiesh-like legendary item will be available from the game and will most likely be a mace.

• 62812 : Forming Val’anyr, Gavel of Ancient Kings — Combines 40 Fragments of Val’anyr to form the Shattered Fragments of Val’anyr.

Edit2: Looks like the LFG interface has been modified as well!! This looks to be a very cool change. I hope it works out well.

Lots of changes, as expected. Please note that these patch notes are NOT final and are subject to change however Blizzard sees fit!

© petewood for my everything else blog..., 2009. | Permalink
Post tags: 3.1, holy, prot, ptr, ret

Talent Dual Spec Q&A with Ghostcrawler
With the next content patch, we will be introducing a number of additions and changes to the game. One new feature in the works is the ability to set up two separate sets of talents, or “dual spec”. While the complete feature may not be immediately available in the Public Test Realms (PTR) and specifics are still liable to change, we wanted to go over some questions with Senior Game Designer Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street to find out more.
Nethaera: What is dual speccing?
Ghostcrawler: Dual speccing is the ability to save two separate talent specs, glyphs, and action bars.
Nethaera: Why are we allowing players to dual spec after all this time?
Ghostcrawler: We really felt like this was a great way to increase the flexibility available to players and encourage them to take part in more aspects of the game. To use just one example, some players like to participate in both raids and Arenas, which is awesome behavior that we want to promote. But, there are some talents which are more useful in one part of the game than another. Currently, players have to pay respec costs and go through the process of setting up the desired talent spec and action bars whenever they switch.
The new system makes this a much more logical process, saving on time and cost and allowing players to easily move from one aspect of the game to another.
Nethaera: Who will be able to use it?
Ghostcrawler: Players who have reached the maximum level will be able to set up dual specs.
Nethaera: Why do players need to be max level in order to do this?
Ghostcrawler: We didn’t want to burden lower-level players with extra complexity as they’re working to level up and learn their class. But if the feature proves popular we might consider expanding it.
Nethaera: How will you be able to set up a dual spec?
Ghostcrawler: Players will be able to visit their trainer and pay a one-time fee to be able to use it.
Nethaera: How do you switch between specs?
Ghostcrawler: Players will be able to switch between their talent specs by visiting any Lexicon of Power provided they’ve paid for the ability to have a secondary spec. Lexicons of Power will be available in major cities, and inscribers will also be able to create a new item that summons one. Anyone can purchase this item, but it requires a ritual of several players to summon it for use by the party. It’s similar to a repair bot in that it will exist in the world for a short duration. It’s important to keep in mind that you will not be able to switch specs while in combat or Arenas. While you won’t be able to switch your spec without the Lexicon, you will still be able to look at your secondary spec whenever you want to.
Nethaera: Will solo players have the ability to switch their specs outside of the cities or will they still need to visit a Lexicon of Power?
Ghostcrawler: Solo players will still need to go into the city to visit the Lexicon of Power to switch their talent spec or will need to get together with other players to summon one in.
Nethaera: Is the item that allows you to summon a Lexicon of Power reusable, or is it used up?
Ghostcrawler: We haven’t made a final decision on that yet, and will be evaluating how it works on the PTR.
Nethaera: Can I respec only one of my talent sets, or will I need to respec them both if I reset one?
Ghostcrawler: When you reset your talents, it will look at the spec you currently have in use as the talent set you want to change.
Nethaera: Will you be able to switch gear easily to match your spec?
Ghostcrawler: At the same time we implement dual specs, we will also be setting up a gear system. The feature is called “Gear Manager.” It can also be used to just swap weapons or trinkets or put on that tuxedo to strut around town. It will not automatically switch your gear when you change your talent spec, but it will allow for an easy gear change between them. The feature may not be fully functional immediately in the PTR, but we’ll have more information to share about it before too much longer.
Nethaera: What about hunters? Often their pet talents are set up to match the talents of the hunter. Will they be able to switch their pet specs as well?
Ghostcrawler: We will wipe the pet talents. However we are going to remove the respec cost for pet talents so that players won’t feel like they need to jump through an additional hoop to respec their pet. In addition, we are going to provide hunters a new core ability to let them remotely access their stable on a long cooldown. This way if their exotic pet heads off to the stable, they will be able to get a different pet. We hope to be able to discuss this new spell in more detail when we get a little further along.
Nethaera: Will you be able to change your Glyphs as well?
Ghostcrawler: Glyphs will be tied to each talent spec so that if you switch between them, so too will the Glyphs. You’ll notice the UI will have changed a little bit so that the Glyph panes show up alongside the Talent panes now that they are associated.
Nethaera: What about hotbars? Will players be able to save them for the talent spec they’re running?
Ghostcrawler: Yes, you will be able to save hotbars and use them with your talent specs. It just saves your bars at the same time as it saves the glyphs and talents. If you want to switch to your other action bar, you will need to change specs.
Nethaera: Is there a way for players to choose their talents without them being saved? Currently, once you spend your talent point, it’s spent unless you pay the respec cost again.
Ghostcrawler: With the dual spec feature, we are going to allow players who respec to configure all their talents before they get saved. They will be able to allocate the points, then choose if they want to use that as their spec, rather than needing to carefully diagram out their talents ahead of time. This will allow players a little more freedom when deciding on the talents they want to pick and avoid costly mistakes.
Nethaera: Will players be confined to only setting up two specs?
Ghostcrawler: We will be launching the feature with just two specs, but depending on how we feel it works out, we might consider additional specs in the future.
Nethaera: When can players expect to try out dual specs?
Ghostcrawler: Players will be able to try out the dual spec system on the Public Test Realms when they are made available. This has been a pretty big project with a lot of people working toward making it a reality in the game. We’ll definitely be watching the feedback and looking for ways of making sure the system works the way we all envisioned it to.

I cannot wait to test this out! I’ve very excited about this feature being implemented.

My idea, for right now anyway, is that I’ll be prot and holy as my two specs. I’ve been wanting to try out holy since I’ve been collecting good gear for it through various raids and heroics. This is my chance to try the spec with a net in case I really hate it. I won’t be out 100g just to try a spec and then decide that I hate it.

© petewood for my everything else blog..., 2009. | Permalink
Post tags: 3.1, dual spec, holy, prot, ret

2nd in dps in 25man OS

Here are some other screenies of Dessara in her prot gear, with the Red Sword of Courage and it’s badass green glow (from Potency enchant).

© petewood for my everything else blog..., 2009. | Permalink
Post tags: heroic, obsidian sanctum, OS, prot, ret, screen shot, screenies

This is the first time I’ve tried ret since 3.0.8 went live. I’m excited to see what kinds of numbers I can produce this time.

Last night, I did a bit of experimentation with money making and JC. I’m planning to write a post with my results in the very near future.

© petewood for my everything else blog..., 2009. | Permalink
Post tags: ret

Naxx

I raided Naxx with my guild on Friday and Saturday nights. On Friday, we did the Arachnid (achievement) and Plague (achievement) quarters. On Saturday, we did the Military (achievement) quarter and attempted the Construct quarter. On the Construct quarter, we downed Patchwerk and attempted Grobbulus a couple of times. We couldn’t get Grobbulus down since over 1/2 of the raid was lagging including our MT (who d/c’d on 2 of the attempts). We called the raid after the last wipe.

I walked out of Naxx with four drops, three of which are holy! The fourth drop was a cloak (that I will link when I am able to log into WoW) that is not any better than my current cloak. The holy pieces were Helm of the Corrupted Mind and two others that I’ll name and link when can log in to WoW.

Tanking

We were going to try and finish Naxx on Sunday night but couldn’t since one of our healers was having internet issues and couldn’t log in. We decided to split up into groups and do some heroics instead. Our MT has been wanting to respec ret and knows that I’ve been wanting to try my hand at tanking so we switched specs. I went with the most popular prot pally build (5/60/6) according to talentchic.com.

We attempted the first boss (Slad’ran) of Heroic Gundrak three times before skipping him in hopes of getting some emblems from two other bosses and then returning to him.

We downed the other bosses in the instance without a problem and went back to Slad’ran. We wiped on him once more before the freshly minted (read: very low dps) lock logged out and into his much better geared mage. After that switch was made, that boss was very trivial. Once attempt, one downing, altar switched and then it was onto the last boss, Gal’darah. The last boss was just as trivial as the others.

I got the achievement for completing Gundrak on Heroic. After reviewing the dps of my group (to myself), I commented that I should get the achievement for tanking my first heroic. Then I looted the boss and saw my achievement waiting: the Horn-Tipped Gauntlets! Those dropping was the icing on the cake for me.

The dps for the group was pretty low considering it was a heroic run. The top dps-er averaged ~1400 dps while the second was 1100ish. The fresh 80 lock averaged just over me, with 900ish dps. I rounded out the bottom with 823 dps (which I feel is extremely low for a WotLK tank).

I had a lot fun tanking that instance, despite the low dps of the group and the many wipes we faced. Tanking is a lot more hectic than dps but I’m ready to tank some more.

© petewood for my everything else blog..., 2009. | Permalink
Post tags: epic, gear, gundrak, heroic, holy, naxx, naxxramas, raiding, ret, tank

Original:

75 stam enchant - courtesy of worldofraids.com

Nerfed version:

50 stam enchant - courtesy of worldofraids.com

This was talked about on tankspot.com as well.

In ret paladin related news, Vengeance was buffed from stacking 3 times (for 9% extra damage) to stacking 5 times (for 15% extra damage). That buff has been removed. Vengeance will still work the same as it does currently on live. Too bad, more damage is good. It’s always nice to see huge Judgement crits!

© petewood for my everything else blog..., 2009. | Permalink
Post tags: 3.0.8, enchant, Paladin Blogs, ptr, ret, stamina

I have a very decent set of tanking gear (including the Bolstered Legplates from Heroic Violet Hold). I just got the 16 expertise JC pattern,  the Precise Scarlet Ruby and I have enough JC buy the 41stam Dragon’s Eye pattern, the Solid Dragon’s Eye. I can make the stamina oriented trinkets as well.

Right now, my biggest problem with my tanking gear is that I was still under 20k health! Now that I have my JC up and can make all those wonderful things, my health should be fine.

My defense might suffer a bit since I’ll have to drop my two BC defense trinkets (Dabiri’s Enigma and  Adamantine Figurine) but I have the Argent Dawn head enchant (Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector) and the Son’s of Hodir shoulder enchant (Greater Inscription of the Pinnacle) to help make up for it. I can also put on some defense enchants/gems if I fall below the 535 defense rating required for being uncrittable by Heroic bosses – level 82. You need a 540 defense rating is required to be uncritabble by raid bosses – level 83.

My most immediate gear goal will be a tanking weapon. Right now, I have the Warsong Punisher, which has very little stam (36) and some dodge (and no defense rating). My immediate choices are from running heroic Utgarde Keep (which is ultra easy) or from the last boss of heroic Utgarde Pinnacle (which I’ve run once – as ret, got to the last boss and proceeded to wipe over and over again). From H UK, I can get the Infantry Assault Blade. From H UP, I can get the Red Sword of Courage.

In regards to the focus of this blog, I’ll still be talking/posting about being ret, but will post more and more about being prot specced in the future.

© petewood for my everything else blog..., 2009. | Permalink
Post tags: dual spec, jewelcrafting, pally, prot, ret, staminna, Tanking

A LOT of people told me that I was stupid for doing that. Some pointed out that I should have waited until I accrued enough money to level JC from 1-375 in one day. I can agree with that last statement, I probably should have waited.

But I was excited about jewelcrafting! The exciting part for me is the JC only gems and trinkets. Being a ret pally, I was very excited about equipping the +27 strength gem (Bold Dragon’s Eye). When I go holy, I’ll very excited about the +27 int (Brilliant Dragon’s Eye) and +32 spell power gems (Runed Dragon’s Eye). If I ever go prot again, I’ll be even more ecstatic about the stam bonus from equipping the JC only trinkets and slapping on some +41stam (Solid Dragon’s Eye) and +27 defense (Thick Dragon’s Eye) and +27expertiese (Precise Dragon’s Eye) gems.

The excitement faded though. I spent a lot of gold leveling it from 1-285. I got stuck at 285 for a long time because I was being pig headed about buying the Azerothian Diamonds off of the AH for 25g. I needed a bunch and didn’t have the funds to support it, mostly because of all of the gear upgrades that I was getting from running heroics needed to be gemmed and enchanted. I am unable to complete a bunch of dailys due to having a wife and two kids, both under 5 and one is only 9 months old.

Since I was stuck at 285 for so long, JC became a major drag for me. I took a few days off from running heroics and started questing again. I amassed a small fortune in gold and off to the AH I went, buying the Azerothian Diamonds and the Huge Emeralds that I needed. Now that I was over that hump, I started to get excited again! I had a few green gems saved up from back in BC.

I used those gems to get me to where I am now, happily sitting at 337. The next milestone for my JC is 350. At 350375 (see update below), I can begin doing the JC dailys and start buying the Dragon’s Eye raw gems from the NPC in Dalaran, Tiffany Courtier. As of patch 3.0.3 (current version of the game as of this writing), I have to wait until my JC is at 375 to begin using the Dragon’s Eye gems. When patch 3.0.8 is finally released, I can begin using the Dragon’s Eye gems when I get JC to 350!

3.0.8 is turning out to be a nice patch (read: buff) for my ret pally!

Update: Your JC skill has to be 375 in order to start the JC daily. I learned that the hard/disappointed way this morning. I have my JC up to 350, but now I need 375…unless the patch is released today while I’m at work!

© petewood for my everything else blog..., 2009. | Permalink
Post tags: 3.0.8, dailys, dragon's eye, gems, jc, jewelcrafting, pally, patch