AT World of Warcraft Thread (Mists, Where do you play, General BS and all that)

[diesbudt]

Last night I replaced my 489 (497 upgraded) mace with the 496 sword (500 now) from tsulong on token roll that was sha touched. So I can finally use my Int gem.

 

[Xonim]

Last night I replaced my 489 (497 upgraded) mace with the 496 sword (500 now) from tsulong on token roll that was sha touched. So I can finally use my Int gem.

Woohoo grats!

I did both HoF LFRs, Terrace LFR, and a Sha last night. Used all 3 of my coins for the week, got 3 items of crap to DE from all the drops / coins (pvp bracers and I don't pvp, tier helm and tier gloves that I already had).

Used a coin on sha (WTB tier pants kthx), Bladelord (hoping for the OH for when they restore my 496 dagger), and the other sha in terrace (again for any pants!). My roll on sha gave me 2 sha crystals from DEing the pvp bracers, so at least there's that, nothing from the other two. Finished my 500 int gem, but I'm going to wait for the sword you just got before I use it. Who knows how long that will be....

I did NOT take the time last night to respec/regem/reforge back to fire. I did all the LFRs as frost yesterday and didn't lose a single fight to another mage. There was a fire mage in slightly worse gear than I have that was consistently within 5-6k, so I MIGHT be able to pull it off. The arcane mages I was watching in the groups weren't doing the right rotations and let their mana get to 50%ish before clearing stacks, so they were well below where they should/could have been.

Should be able to go from 463 --> 489 pants after tonight's raid and a few dailies, just need 210 vp's for klaxxi pants. Probably Sunday I can hit Klaxxi exalted and bring my 2nd ring from 483-->489. Hopefully my dagger is restored by then also and I can go rework everything and try fire again before we do something not-MV10 on Sunday night.

EDIT: Have to wonder when/if more mage nerfs are coming. There was two fights in terrace where 5 of the top 8 dps were mages (#2-4, 6, 8). Me @ #2 as frost behind an assassination rogue that pulled ahead in dispatch phase, arcane mages at 3,8, fire mages at 4,6. We all were better geared than the other top dps, but nobody seems to care about that...

 

[diesbudt]

Woohoo grats!

I did both HoF LFRs, Terrace LFR, and a Sha last night. Used all 3 of my coins for the week, got 3 items of crap to DE from all the drops / coins (pvp bracers and I don't pvp, tier helm and tier gloves that I already had).

Used a coin on sha (WTB tier pants kthx), Bladelord (hoping for the OH for when they restore my 496 dagger), and the other sha in terrace (again for any pants!). My roll on sha gave me 2 sha crystals from DEing the pvp bracers, so at least there's that, nothing from the other two. Finished my 500 int gem, but I'm going to wait for the sword you just got before I use it. Who knows how long that will be....

I did NOT take the time last night to respec/regem/reforge back to fire. I did all the LFRs as frost yesterday and didn't lose a single fight to another mage. There was a fire mage in slightly worse gear than I have that was consistently within 5-6k, so I MIGHT be able to pull it off. The arcane mages I was watching in the groups weren't doing the right rotations and let their mana get to 50%ish before clearing stacks, so they were well below where they should/could have been.

Should be able to go from 463 --> 489 pants after tonight's raid and a few dailies, just need 210 vp's for klaxxi pants. Probably Sunday I can hit Klaxxi exalted and bring my 2nd ring from 483-->489. Hopefully my dagger is restored by then also and I can go rework everything and try fire again before we do something not-MV10 on Sunday night.

I got lucky last night on token rolls.

Protectors - Nothing
Tsulong - Sword (alas no spirit... but has sha gem slot so itll be an upgrade)
Lei shi - Tier shoulder token.

Now chest or Gloves from 4 piece.

The actual boss drops however? Every boss dropped spirit cloth gear and agi leather/cloak gear. Talk about d/ed loot...

---For the sword on tsulong, tsulong isn't bad/hard at all. It all depends on how pro your healers are, and how smart your dps is in the day phase. Unlike LFR, you get (on 10m Tsulong):

Night > Day > Night > Day > Enrage
(This means until you have him on farm dps will not see the "execute" phase)

----Lei shi is pretty easy as well. It just depends how fast dps can cc and then kill 1 of 3/4 adds that spawn every 20% hp. And how good healers can keep tanks up last 20% where lei shi is just chucking frost bolts at the tanks really fast.

 

[diesbudt]

EDIT: Have to wonder when/if more mage nerfs are coming. There was two fights in terrace where 5 of the top 8 dps were mages (#2-4, 6, 8). Me @ #2 as frost behind an assassination rogue that pulled ahead in dispatch phase, arcane mages at 3,8, fire mages at 4,6. We all were better geared than the other top dps, but nobody seems to care about that...

LFR is a bad representation. As most LFR fights you dont have to dodge mechanics and can just stand and shoot. Dodging mechanics normally hurts dps.

Right now the "theoretical top dps" are afflict locks and assassination rogues.

 

[Xonim]

---For the sword on tsulong, tsulong isn't bad/hard at all. It all depends on how pro your healers are, and how smart your dps is in the day phase. Unlike LFR, you get (on 10m Tsulong):

Night > Day > Night > Day > Enrage
(This means until you have him on farm dps will not see the "execute" phase)

I can't imagine we'll be pulling him on normal for some time. We just got Elegon/Will down last week and went to protectors since we only had an hour. This week I think we're hoping to full clear MV tonight and then jump into HoF on Sunday.

----Lei shi is pretty easy as well. It just depends how fast dps can cc and then kill 1 of 3/4 adds that spawn every 20% hp. And how good healers can keep tanks up last 20% where lei shi is just chucking frost bolts at the tanks really fast.

I actually got in on a Lei Shi normal kill on Monday night. Got pulled into an alt run for the top raid guild on my server, of course, that meant that I wasn't a priority for healing since I was the noob getting carried, even though I was #2 dps by a fair margin when i went down at ~55%. I was consistently the last one healed. Anyway, didn't seem that difficult as a dps, mostly looks like it's going to be a healer check as you've said.

LFR is a bad representation. As most LFR fights you dont have to dodge mechanics and can just stand and shoot. Dodging mechanics normally hurts dps.

Right now the "theoretical top dps" are afflict locks and assassination rogues.

This is true, meaning that fire and arcane are going to be even more behind frost on MOST fights. Frost can do a lot of things on the move, between your WE's freeze, PoM + whatever, or hitting frozen orb, or even refreshing NT, there are times where you have 6-7 or more GCD's without cast times.

 

[diesbudt]

I can't imagine we'll be pulling him on normal for some time. We just got Elegon/Will down last week and went to protectors since we only had an hour. This week I think we're hoping to full clear MV tonight and then jump into HoF on Sunday.



I actually got in on a Lei Shi normal kill on Monday night. Got pulled into an alt run for the top raid guild on my server, of course, that meant that I wasn't a priority for healing since I was the noob getting carried, even though I was #2 dps by a fair margin when i went down at ~55%. I was consistently the last one healed. Anyway, didn't seem that difficult as a dps, mostly looks like it's going to be a healer check as you've said.



This is true, meaning that fire and arcane are going to be even more behind frost on MOST fights. Frost can do a lot of things on the move, between your WE's freeze, PoM + whatever, or hitting frozen orb, or even refreshing NT, there are times where you have 6-7 or more GCD's without cast times.

What was your dps?

Also the bolded. What...? That makes 0 sense. Especially since the only time dps take damage is the Hide, or the push out phase. Which aoe healing should happened and uncontrollable aoe healing should still hit you.

 

[Xonim]

What was your dps?

I was at ~70.3k when I went down during the.....well, windy phase, I guess I"d call it...

The other damage may have been my fault, sorta. They tried CCing the adds (fear, frost trap, etc), but I kept ending up with them from the NT bounce and ice lance glyphs. Guess I know now I should glyph something other than ice lance for that fight if that's how it has to be done. Aside from not casting NT/equivalent, not sure how I can avoid that otherwise. Be nice if the tanks hit them once or twice before they got CC'd, but who knows.

 

[diesbudt]

I was at ~70.3k when I went down during the.....well, windy phase, I guess I"d call it...

Frost you said? Not bad.

Also if it comes to any advice on any of the bosses (but empress) on normal at this point I can give pointers. [Empress is only boss we have yet to attempt/kill on normal]

 

[Xonim]

Frost you said? Not bad.

Yep. Frost's damage is in the ballpark of everyone else, for the most part, maybe just a tad low on single target (2-3k dps maybe) given equal gear. It does do better than average on cleave-type fights, at least, fights with two targets. It'll do.

I still have a lot of mastery gear since I'm bouncing between frost and arcane right now, but iirc frost is haste > crit to 23% > mastery and arcane is haste to 3039 > mastery > haste > crit.

As far as crit/mastery, I haven't really pushed one way or the other. Doesn't seem to make much difference on arcane (example frost armor v mage armor were less than ~400 dps apart, which could have just been CD timings or crit streaks or something), but I think a little higher crit would definitely benefit my frost spec.

 

[nageov3t]

how are mages as far as having so many buttons to push?

my 85 mage has been on hold a bit because I got overwhelmed by the new talent system in 5.0 (with mages being -- as far as I can tell -- the only class with all active talents and none passive)

 

[zokudu]

Grinding VP today. Need to get my Golden Lotus Honored ring to get the ilvl for the second tier of LFR.

 

[Xonim]

how are mages as far as having so many buttons to push?

my 85 mage has been on hold a bit because I got overwhelmed by the new talent system in 5.0 (with mages being -- as far as I can tell -- the only class with all active talents and none passive)

Depends which spec you play.

Arcane is BORING. Like, really really boring. It's far and away the least active of the specs.

Frost is very very active. What separates the good frost mages from the bad ones are CD and proc management -- things like using your WE's freeze, icy veins on CD, frozen orb on CD, dumping your brain freeze and FoF procs ASAP, etc.

Fire used to be nearly as active as frost with dumping pyro/hot streak procs. It's dialed back since they stole 7-8% crit instead of dropping spell coefficients, but it's still better than arcane.

For best use you're probably looking at either Rune of Power or Invocation for all 3 specs, both of which are pretty much required to be up as much as possible. Kinda clunky imo.

 

[Hacp]

Grinding VP today. Need to get my Golden Lotus Honored ring to get the ilvl for the second tier of LFR.

Grats! I had to grind VP on monday because I didn't do many dailies the week before. It was a pain!

 

[diesbudt]

Grats! I had to grind VP on monday because I didn't do many dailies the week before. It was a pain!

Granted I raid and thus I get 40vp x 13 this week of VP. (520).

But my strategy has been, do the dailies of groups I am not exalted with, unless it is more than 3, than just choose teh 3 i want to do, each day until full VP. Then I do not touch the dailies until reset. (Add in LFR, if I do that, though atm I may do 1-2 LFR a week now as I don't need anything.)

Each daily hub is like 10ish minutes. so 30 minutes a day is not bad at all if you pace yourself.

 

[diesbudt]

Depends which spec you play.

Arcane is BORING. Like, really really boring. It's far and away the least active of the specs.

Frost is very very active. What separates the good frost mages from the bad ones are CD and proc management -- things like using your WE's freeze, icy veins on CD, frozen orb on CD, dumping your brain freeze and FoF procs ASAP, etc.

Fire used to be nearly as active as frost with dumping pyro/hot streak procs. It's dialed back since they stole 7-8% crit instead of dropping spell coefficients, but it's still better than arcane.

For best use you're probably looking at either Rune of Power or Invocation for all 3 specs, both of which are pretty much required to be up as much as possible. Kinda clunky imo.

I found mages kinda bland. Granted I played a lot of warlock where they have like 7+ spells they used to have to use in a priority sequence that would seperate the low and top tiers of warlock players.

Just like ele shamans.... So simple a rotation, just c/d management.

 

[Xonim]

I found mages kinda bland. Granted I played a lot of warlock where they have like 7+ spells they used to have to use in a priority sequence that would seperate the low and top tiers of warlock players.

Just like ele shamans.... So simple a rotation, just c/d management.

Hah I'm just the opposite. I don't really enjoy my warlock. Of course, the fact that I've been playing my mage since I started in 2005 might have something to do with that...

I especially don't like my warlock right now, even the AC dailies take like twice as long just because, well, my warlock sucks. Hah! The 40+ ilvl gear difference might also influence that just a bit. Maybe it will be better if I don't feel so useless.

I plan to maybe gear my warlock a bit in case they find it in them to nerf mages again. I'm going to be getting the GL chest probably this weekend. Even still that will likely only bring me up to 446 or so. I really haven't done much with him.

Definitely want to start my priest. I want a healer, and I found that even though I thought I preferred paladin healing, as soon as I got a priest to max level (80 at the time), priest healing is a LOT more fun. It's currently 85, full rested, so it shouldn't take long.

 

[nageov3t]

the ele shaman rotation is kinda nice... though I face palmed a bit the other night when I had to take my roommate take over playing for me for like 5 minutes in a heroic.

I was like, "just follow the other players around and spam '5' whenever anything is attacking the group" (5 being chain lightning)

 

[diesbudt]

the ele shaman rotation is kinda nice... though I face palmed a bit the other night when I had to take my roommate take over playing for me for like 5 minutes in a heroic.

I was like, "just follow the other players around and spam '5' whenever anything is attacking the group" (5 being chain lightning)

Exactly...


Also Xonim, I have both my lock and mage 85, near same ilevel. I can tell you leveling them both to 85.7, the warlock would kill things 3-4x faster, and could pull enough mobs to make the killing much easier.

The mage... 3 "battles" and I have to eat/drink some. And it takes him like 4-5 buttons to kill something.

But thats just my experience leveling them a bit.

 

[Xonim]

I've got both of mine at 90 and had the opposite experience =(

Maging was a lot faster for me just because of the shatter combos with frost bomb / frostjaw / deep freeze + ice lances. With my warlock, previous expansions I could just dot everything once as affliction and wait for it to die, but dots alone aren't powerful enough for that anymore. I actually tried leveling as all 3 specs at some point 85-90, demo seemed to be the quickest, but it still felt terribly slow.

Again, might just be that I know the mage class better than any other ones. /shrug

And this is why they have lots of classes and specs available =)

 

[diesbudt]

I've got both of mine at 90 and had the opposite experience =(

Maging was a lot faster for me just because of the shatter combos with frost bomb / frostjaw / deep freeze + ice lances. With my warlock, previous expansions I could just dot everything once as affliction and wait for it to die, but dots alone aren't powerful enough for that anymore. I actually tried leveling as all 3 specs at some point 85-90, demo seemed to be the quickest, but it still felt terribly slow.

Again, might just be that I know the mage class better than any other ones. /shrug

And this is why they have lots of classes and specs available =)

Demo is the superior leveling spec, and aoe spec for locks. and the upgraded felguard, literally does 30% of the hp on the hozen mobs in Jade forest in a hit or 2. He hits so hard. Add in the aoe spells, DoTs, and ability to lifetap and health steal. Never had to rest.

 

[Hacp]

I found mages kinda bland. Granted I played a lot of warlock where they have like 7+ spells they used to have to use in a priority sequence that would seperate the low and top tiers of warlock players.

Most classes have a priority rotation, including elemental shaman.

 

[diesbudt]

Most classes have a priority rotation, including elemental shaman.

Yes, but cata demonology priority ortation had 11-12 priorities to memorize. Ele shamans have 4-5.

1. Totem not up? Use totem
2. Flame shock if not on boss
3. Lava burst if up
4. Earth shock, if Flame shock has 8+ seconds and 7+ stacks of lightning shield
5. Lightning bolt.

That is all there is to ele.

Cata demo locks had, dots, aoe cone attack even on single target, pet attacks, hand of guldan, shadow bolt and searing flame all in the priority rotation. There is definitely a degree higher of difficulty in the priority rotation.

 

[nageov3t]

even as an ele shaman I've still got about 6 spells in my single target rotation...

flame shock -> lava burst -> elemental blast -> lightning bolt (filler)
keep totem down, and earth shock when the button glows

warlocks have typically had crazy rotations/priorities, though (0/21/30 shadowbolt spam in Burning Crusade notwithstanding)

 

[diesbudt]

even as an ele shaman I've still got about 6 spells in my single target rotation...

flame shock -> lava burst -> elemental blast -> lightning bolt (filler)
keep totem down, and earth shock when the button glows

warlocks have typically had crazy rotations/priorities, though (0/21/30 shadowbolt spam in Burning Crusade notwithstanding)

Lol.

Sm + ruin. (21/0/30) Oh what a spec... topped dps charts spamming 1 button. Oh the joys...

But yes, cata demonology warlock had 2x the ele shaman priorities. And missing even 1 could hamper the dps enough to matter. Plus demo locks had to stand near melee range to maximize dps. (In MoP they mixed their in melee spell with hand of guldan, so they do not need to anymore)

 

[nageov3t]

I think I may pickup my warlock tonight... 21/30 burned me out so hardcore in BC that my lock has been gathering dust ever since.

I'd love a max level tailor to start making myself bags, though... what's the go-to spec for leveling? demo still?