Patch 5.0.4 has been here since for a week now. I've had time to spec a character or two, update every addon at least twice, and even run a raid.
Mornara's rotation hasn't really changed all that much. I made the happy discovery that using Blood Boil on a single target will refresh that target's diseases, which goes a long way to address the (new for Blood DKs) 60 sec cd on Outbreak. I honestly can't see why you'd ever not take Roiling Blood as a talent. I'm looking forward to getting Soul Reaper, and even have a space saved for it on my bars.
Viljo's new rotation seems pretty nice so far as well. I like having a little more control over the pyro procs and feeling less at the mercy of RNG. I'm not sure I'll like the changes that Alter Time and the last talent bring, but we'll see when I get to level 90.
The raid was mildly successful. Despite addons crapping out all over the place we managed to kill the first 6 heroic bosses before we ran out of time. This task was made a lot more difficult by a bunch of disconnects, and the fact that about half the raid forgot that when they updated DBM they also needed to grab the Cata pack for it. There were general adjustment to new rotations, but it went well for the most part. Not being able to release until a fight is over is actually rather annoying. I can see it driving me batshit when there is that one jackass who doesn't listen when a wipe is called for.
I was amused at all the new achieves and combining of old achieves. It did not surprise me that logging in Morn and V was enough to get me the 100 mount achieve and 100 pet achieve. Combining mounts and pets for your account seems a bit odd, but not terribly game breaking. However, I am not going to substantially alter the mount macros I have for my characters currently. Their mounts reflect their personalities, and it just wouldn't make sense for them to be riding anything else than what they already are.
The once thing I am intensely disappointed about with the pets is that the Dragon Kite is not a fightable pet. I had all these awesome plans about how my dragon kite was going to kick ass whenever we actually get to do pet battles. Those plans are all kaput now :'-(
I did get a chance to try out the new aoe looting. This will make farming old instances slightly more profitable and less time consuming. Which is nice, since Morn still needs rep from a bunch of the BC factions. It'll help with her rampages through IQD and older dungeons.
Oh, I was also disheartened to see that the requirements for the DS meta-achieve changed. You no longer need Spine or Madness of Deathwing. It was a bit sad to log in and see that achieve pop up. I'd been looking forward to getting it when we actually downed those two bosses. Now it feels like we were just handed a consolation prize, even though I know we worked so hard and completely earned the achievements we did get.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Monday, August 27, 2012
Umbranse
I've been going through the quests in Kalimdor with Mornara. It's amusing to tromp through zones, and it's nice to see the new stories and compare it to the old ones.
A particularly interesting story I ran across in Winterspring. People should remember that in Vanilla you'd bring the Chained Essence of Eranikus to Umbranse the Seer in Winterspring after killing corrupted Eranikus in Temple of Atal'Hakkar. It was a giant plot hook, that was never ever followed up on in Vanilla. Sadly they just let it rust away in Cata, too.
Umbranse the Spiritspeaker yells: All those dragon essences I've collected... the power... is exhilirating!
Umbranse the Spiritspeaker yells: You can't take this away from me! Not now, not ever!
Turns out we can, but we still don't know exactly what he was doing... :(
A particularly interesting story I ran across in Winterspring. People should remember that in Vanilla you'd bring the Chained Essence of Eranikus to Umbranse the Seer in Winterspring after killing corrupted Eranikus in Temple of Atal'Hakkar. It was a giant plot hook, that was never ever followed up on in Vanilla. Sadly they just let it rust away in Cata, too.
Umbranse the Spiritspeaker yells: You can't take this away from me! Not now, not ever!
Turns out we can, but we still don't know exactly what he was doing... :(
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Dragon Soul: Ultraxion Dialogue
Ultraxion is the 5th boss that Darkfall killed in Dragon Soul. He is a large, and angry, twilight dragon.
Ultraxion has a single phase. He pulls you into the twilight realm at the start of the encounter and the entire fight takes place there. As the fight goes on there is steadily escalating aoe damage as Ultraxion becomes more and more unstable.
To counter that steadily escalating damage Thrall and the Dragon Aspects give you buffs. Thrall has a very lovely tank buff. Ysera, Alexstraza, and Kalecgos have healer buffs. And then near the end Nozdormu will give the raid Timeloop, a get-out-of-death-once free card.
The Aspects are super happy to see you once you get back from trouncing Hagara.
Ysera the Awakened says: Praise the Titans, they have returned!
Nozdormu the Timeless One says: Not entirely unexpected.
Kalecgos says: Excellent! We will begin the ritual at once!
Alexstraza the Life-Binder says: The ritual will take much from us, as it requires a piece of our very being. We will be weakened greatly.
Thrall says: Heroes, this burden falls to you once again.
Thrall says: You must protect us from Deathwing's forces while we imbue the Dragon Soul with the power of the Aspects.
Thrall says: Speak to me when you are ready to begin.
Thrall says: Heroes, we must place this burden on your shoulders once again. You must protect us from Deathwing's forces while we imbue the Soul with the powers of the great Aspects of Azeroth.
<Player> says: You may continue your ritual, we will defend you.
The first time you start the encounter by talking to Thrall Deathwing himself shows up and taunts Alexstraza. He sends a bunch of twisted former red drakes at the raid. Alexstraza is quite harsh about telling the raid to kill the twilight drakes that used to be part of her flight.
Deathwing yells: It is good to see you again, Alexstraza. I have been busy in my absence.
Deathwing yells: Twisting your pitiful whelps into mindless abominations, bent only to my will. It was a very... painful process.
Alexstraza the Life-Binder says: They... are my clutch no longer. Bring them down.
Deathwing yells: Mere whelps, experiments, a means to a greater end. You will see what the research of my clutch has yielded.
Once the drakes are dead, you've got a short while to buff up and stack up on the Northern edge of the top of Wyrmrest temple.
Deathwing yells: Nefarian, Onyxia, Sinestra... they were nothing. Now you face my ultimate creation.
Deathwing yells: The Hour of Twilight is nigh; the sun sets on your pitiful mortal existence.
Ysera the Awakened says: I sense a great disturbance in the balance approaching. The chaos of it burns my mind!
Ultraxion yells: I am the beginning of the end...the shadow which blots out the sun... the bell which tolls your doom...
(The raid gets pulled in to the Twilight Realm as Ultraxion says he is the shadow.)
Ultraxion yells: For this moment ALONE was I made. Look upon your death, mortals, and despair!
Ultraxion yells: Now is the hour of twilight!
Thrall yells: Strength of the Earth, hear my call! Shield them in this dark hour, the last defenders of Azeroth!
Ultraxion yells: You have no hope!
Ultraxion yells: Through the pain and fire my hatred burns!
Alexstraza the Life-Binder yells: Take heart, heroes, life will always blossom from the darkest soil!
Ultraxion yells: The final shred of light fades, and with it, your pitiful mortal existence!
Ysera the Awakened yells: In dreams, we may overcome any obstacle!
Kalecgos yells: Winds of the arcane be at their backs, and refresh them in this hour of darkness!
Nozdorum the Timeless One yells: The cycle of time brings an end to all things.
Ultraxion yells: Through the pain and fire my hatred burns!
Ultraxion yells: But... but.. I am... Ul... trax... ionnnnnn...
Alexstraza the Life-Binder says: It is done! Our power now resides within the Dragon Soul! Our fate lies with you, Earth-Warder!
Thrall says: Taretha... Cairne... Aggra... I will not fail you. I will not fail this world!
Then you get a short cinematic where Thrall fires the Dragon Soul at Deathwing and mostly misses but manages to shatter one of the armor plates on his back. In retaliation, Deathwing destroys the Horde airship and retreats towards the Maelstrom.
Ultraxion yells: I WILL DRAG YOU WITH ME INTO FLAME AND DARKNESS!
Alexstraza the Life-Binder says: The have failed us sister.
Ysera the Awakened says: I have awakened only to sleep once again.
However, if you fail to have the requisite number of people soak the Hour of Twilight then the Aspects get clobbered, and you all die. Oh, and you get bitched out by Alexstraza and Ysera...
It's odd that despite this being a completely stationary fight I think of it as quite dynamic. Especially for the tanks there is a lot of taunting and dodging in and out of the Twilight Realm for Hour of Twilight and Fading Light.
In 10man normal mode the tanks can alternate taking each Hour. A single tank can even take every single hour, as long as appropriate cool downs are available. We haven't done normal mode kills for a while but on Mornara I usually alternated Icebound Fortitude with Antimagic Shield plus Bone Shield. In 25man normal mode you need three people bearing the brunt of each Hour. We usually had a 3rd person go tanky and just have all three of us popping CDs and stay in for hour.
In 10man heroic mode two people need to be there for each Hour. Additionally taking the hit from Hour of Twilight puts a debuff on you so that you can only take every third Hour. So there needs to be a strict rotation of at least six people for who takes which Hour.
Ultraxion has a single phase. He pulls you into the twilight realm at the start of the encounter and the entire fight takes place there. As the fight goes on there is steadily escalating aoe damage as Ultraxion becomes more and more unstable.
To counter that steadily escalating damage Thrall and the Dragon Aspects give you buffs. Thrall has a very lovely tank buff. Ysera, Alexstraza, and Kalecgos have healer buffs. And then near the end Nozdormu will give the raid Timeloop, a get-out-of-death-once free card.
The Aspects are super happy to see you once you get back from trouncing Hagara.
Ysera the Awakened says: Praise the Titans, they have returned!
Nozdormu the Timeless One says: Not entirely unexpected.
Kalecgos says: Excellent! We will begin the ritual at once!
Alexstraza the Life-Binder says: The ritual will take much from us, as it requires a piece of our very being. We will be weakened greatly.
Thrall says: Heroes, this burden falls to you once again.
Thrall says: You must protect us from Deathwing's forces while we imbue the Dragon Soul with the power of the Aspects.
Thrall says: Speak to me when you are ready to begin.
Thrall says: Heroes, we must place this burden on your shoulders once again. You must protect us from Deathwing's forces while we imbue the Soul with the powers of the great Aspects of Azeroth.
<Player> says: You may continue your ritual, we will defend you.
The first time you start the encounter by talking to Thrall Deathwing himself shows up and taunts Alexstraza. He sends a bunch of twisted former red drakes at the raid. Alexstraza is quite harsh about telling the raid to kill the twilight drakes that used to be part of her flight.
Deathwing yells: Twisting your pitiful whelps into mindless abominations, bent only to my will. It was a very... painful process.
Once the drakes are dead, you've got a short while to buff up and stack up on the Northern edge of the top of Wyrmrest temple.
Deathwing yells: The Hour of Twilight is nigh; the sun sets on your pitiful mortal existence.
Ysera the Awakened says: I sense a great disturbance in the balance approaching. The chaos of it burns my mind!
Ultraxion yells: I am the beginning of the end...the shadow which blots out the sun... the bell which tolls your doom...
(The raid gets pulled in to the Twilight Realm as Ultraxion says he is the shadow.)
Ultraxion yells: Now is the hour of twilight!
Thrall yells: Strength of the Earth, hear my call! Shield them in this dark hour, the last defenders of Azeroth!
Ultraxion yells: You have no hope!
Ultraxion yells: Through the pain and fire my hatred burns!
Alexstraza the Life-Binder yells: Take heart, heroes, life will always blossom from the darkest soil!
Ultraxion yells: The final shred of light fades, and with it, your pitiful mortal existence!
Nozdorum the Timeless One yells: The cycle of time brings an end to all things.
Ultraxion yells: Through the pain and fire my hatred burns!
Ultraxion yells: But... but.. I am... Ul... trax... ionnnnnn...
Alexstraza the Life-Binder says: It is done! Our power now resides within the Dragon Soul! Our fate lies with you, Earth-Warder!
Thrall says: Taretha... Cairne... Aggra... I will not fail you. I will not fail this world!
Then you get a short cinematic where Thrall fires the Dragon Soul at Deathwing and mostly misses but manages to shatter one of the armor plates on his back. In retaliation, Deathwing destroys the Horde airship and retreats towards the Maelstrom.
Ultraxion yells: I WILL DRAG YOU WITH ME INTO FLAME AND DARKNESS!
Alexstraza the Life-Binder says: The have failed us sister.
Ysera the Awakened says: I have awakened only to sleep once again.
However, if you fail to have the requisite number of people soak the Hour of Twilight then the Aspects get clobbered, and you all die. Oh, and you get bitched out by Alexstraza and Ysera...
It's odd that despite this being a completely stationary fight I think of it as quite dynamic. Especially for the tanks there is a lot of taunting and dodging in and out of the Twilight Realm for Hour of Twilight and Fading Light.
In 10man normal mode the tanks can alternate taking each Hour. A single tank can even take every single hour, as long as appropriate cool downs are available. We haven't done normal mode kills for a while but on Mornara I usually alternated Icebound Fortitude with Antimagic Shield plus Bone Shield. In 25man normal mode you need three people bearing the brunt of each Hour. We usually had a 3rd person go tanky and just have all three of us popping CDs and stay in for hour.
In 10man heroic mode two people need to be there for each Hour. Additionally taking the hit from Hour of Twilight puts a debuff on you so that you can only take every third Hour. So there needs to be a strict rotation of at least six people for who takes which Hour.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Pandemonium Unholy DK PvP build
I don't actually dps with my death knight. If I'm in a raid, I'm the tank. What I do with my unholy build is go into battlegrounds and arenas. So the glyphs and talents are chosen for that rather than actual dps maximization.
Unholy blight! With auto diseasing! How could I say no?
Level 57 Talent:
I've put Lichborne here but I'm really not sure about that. I could see a good argument for AMZ or Purgatory.
Level 58 Talent:
Chillblains here. Having a 50% slow is handy, and even better will be the 3sec immobilize from chains of ice. Plus I already get a run speed boost from Unholy Presence.
Level 60 Talent:
Death Pact for the win. As unholy I'll always have a ghoul around, and the new pact doesn't actually kill my ghoul.
Level 75 Talent:
Runic Empowerment. Sometimes I'll get a wierd and useless rune, but the potential burst from getting a good run is totally worth it.
Level 90 Talent:
Currently Desecrated Ground, an extra trinket button is excellent. However, I could see a strong argument for Remorseless Winter. AoE slow with a potential stun is quite nice. Gorefield's Grasp might also be really nice too, having a second yank for people hitting my arena partners might be super nice.
Add an offensive dispell to Icy Touch? Sign me up please! This seems tailor made to combat recalcitrant healers in the arena. I'm actually looking forward to chasing down a resto druid, between this and a couple of other talents.
The Death Coil glyph will add an absorb shield if used on allies. That seems like it will be incredibly useful in PvP.
Again, removing the taunt from Army of the Dead is far too good to give up.
I still like taking less falling damage with the Path of Frost glyph. I could see swapping to Foul Menagerie for the awesomeness of having a rag tag army of the undead, but I've already got a geist so I'll likely keep this as Path of Frost.
Talents:
Level 56 Talent:Unholy blight! With auto diseasing! How could I say no?
Level 57 Talent:
I've put Lichborne here but I'm really not sure about that. I could see a good argument for AMZ or Purgatory.
Level 58 Talent:
Chillblains here. Having a 50% slow is handy, and even better will be the 3sec immobilize from chains of ice. Plus I already get a run speed boost from Unholy Presence.
Level 60 Talent:
Death Pact for the win. As unholy I'll always have a ghoul around, and the new pact doesn't actually kill my ghoul.
Level 75 Talent:
Runic Empowerment. Sometimes I'll get a wierd and useless rune, but the potential burst from getting a good run is totally worth it.
Level 90 Talent:
Currently Desecrated Ground, an extra trinket button is excellent. However, I could see a strong argument for Remorseless Winter. AoE slow with a potential stun is quite nice. Gorefield's Grasp might also be really nice too, having a second yank for people hitting my arena partners might be super nice.
Major Glyphs:
Unholy Frenzy is a spell that I currently never use. It increases haste, but has a pretty nasty dot affect. If I could glyph that to not kill my teammates I'd love it.Add an offensive dispell to Icy Touch? Sign me up please! This seems tailor made to combat recalcitrant healers in the arena. I'm actually looking forward to chasing down a resto druid, between this and a couple of other talents.
The Death Coil glyph will add an absorb shield if used on allies. That seems like it will be incredibly useful in PvP.
Minor Glyphs:
I can't resist turning my perma-ghoul into a perma-geist. I'll definitely be taking the glyph of Geist.Again, removing the taunt from Army of the Dead is far too good to give up.
I still like taking less falling damage with the Path of Frost glyph. I could see swapping to Foul Menagerie for the awesomeness of having a rag tag army of the undead, but I've already got a geist so I'll likely keep this as Path of Frost.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Dragon Soul: Hagara Stormbinder Dialogue
Hagara is the fourth boss in Dragon Soul. She is an orc shaman who was corrupted by the Twilight's Hammer and is now working for Deathwing.
When Thrall needs help using the Dragon Soul, Kalecgos suggests using the focusing iris in the Eye of Eternity to help control and direct the energies. Hagara is lying in wait for the raid in the Eye of Eternity.
She has three separate phases, a main phase, a lightning phase, and an ice phase. She alternates these phases in the pattern: main, lightning, main, ice, main, lightning, main, ice. Though she can have either the ice phase or the lightning phase first. You can tell which phase she'll start with from the buff on her weapon.
Thrall says: It is no use, the power of the Dragon Soul is too great. I cannot wield it safely; the raging forces contained within it may be the doom of us all.
Alexstraza the Life-Binder says: They truly, we are lost.
Kalecgos says: Not necessarily. I believe...yes...it just might work.
Kalecgos says: The Focusing Iris within the Eye of Eternity may allow us to converge the magical matrix contained within the Dragon Soul.
Thrall says: Yes, I see. We can finally turn Deathwing's own power back against him.
Ysera the Awakened says: I sense danger...it is a trap...carefully laid for us at this crucial moment.
Thrall says: We have no choice. We must have faith in our allies.
And then Kalecgos opens the portal to the Eye of Eternity. Once you touch the Focusing Iris, Hagara appears and gets ready to beat up the raid. She'll send several waves of trash at you and one of her lieutenants to beat on you.
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: Even with the Aspect of Time on your side, you stumble foolishly into a trap?
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: Don't preen just yet, little pups. We'll cleanse this world of your kind.
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: You'll not leave this place alive!
After all those trash mobs are dead she'll hop off of her floating stone circle and be ready to take on the raid. You do have a chance here to buff up and drop raid markers. You can also send in a sacrifice or hunter to swap her from frost to lightning phase first, though that sometimes takes a few tries.
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: You cross the Stormbinder! I'll slaughter you all.
In lightning phase you need to overload her lightning conductors. For heroic we have two teams of melee running the lightning chains. All the ranged and healers stand in the center to make sure they don't take any avoidable chain damage.
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: Suffer the storm's wrath!
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: What are you doing?
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: You're toying with death.
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: You think you can play with my lightning?
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: Impossible!
Frost phase we have everyone running away from the ice walls, also know as ice up the butt. Especially, on heroic, the important thing is for everyone to live through the phase. Any damage you can put on the ice crystals is good, but it's not worth falling behind and getting hit by the ice wall.
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: Die beneath the ice.
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: The time I spent binding that, WASTED!
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: Enough!
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: You'll PAY for that.
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: Aughhhh!
In heroic mode, Hagara will also put the Frostflake debuff on random people. I'll put a slow patch on the ground around where it is dispelled unless you're standing in the water bubble. We just ignore it and have our hunter keep Aspect of the Pack up for the Ice section of the fight.
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: You can't outrun the storm.
Main phase you have to watch out for the ice tombs, and the ice lances, and her main attack on the tank Focused Assault. Break out the people in ice tombs asap, and make sure your healers and ranged know to not take too many stacks of ice lance. The tank should also run away from focused assault on normal and get ready to pop a CD on heroic. Being a DK for heroic makes it a lot easier since I can just make sure I'm prepped to get a nice big Death Strike shield.
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: Stay, pup.
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: You face more than my axes, this close.
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: Feh!
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: Cowards! You pack of weakling... dogs...
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: You should have run, dog.
Hagara isn't too bad a fight once you get the different phases down. Though she does seem to have a fixation about dogs.
When Thrall needs help using the Dragon Soul, Kalecgos suggests using the focusing iris in the Eye of Eternity to help control and direct the energies. Hagara is lying in wait for the raid in the Eye of Eternity.
She has three separate phases, a main phase, a lightning phase, and an ice phase. She alternates these phases in the pattern: main, lightning, main, ice, main, lightning, main, ice. Though she can have either the ice phase or the lightning phase first. You can tell which phase she'll start with from the buff on her weapon.
Alexstraza the Life-Binder says: They truly, we are lost.
Kalecgos says: Not necessarily. I believe...yes...it just might work.
Kalecgos says: The Focusing Iris within the Eye of Eternity may allow us to converge the magical matrix contained within the Dragon Soul.
Ysera the Awakened says: I sense danger...it is a trap...carefully laid for us at this crucial moment.
Thrall says: We have no choice. We must have faith in our allies.
And then Kalecgos opens the portal to the Eye of Eternity. Once you touch the Focusing Iris, Hagara appears and gets ready to beat up the raid. She'll send several waves of trash at you and one of her lieutenants to beat on you.
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: You'll not leave this place alive!
After all those trash mobs are dead she'll hop off of her floating stone circle and be ready to take on the raid. You do have a chance here to buff up and drop raid markers. You can also send in a sacrifice or hunter to swap her from frost to lightning phase first, though that sometimes takes a few tries.
In lightning phase you need to overload her lightning conductors. For heroic we have two teams of melee running the lightning chains. All the ranged and healers stand in the center to make sure they don't take any avoidable chain damage.
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: What are you doing?
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: You're toying with death.
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: You think you can play with my lightning?
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: Impossible!
Frost phase we have everyone running away from the ice walls, also know as ice up the butt. Especially, on heroic, the important thing is for everyone to live through the phase. Any damage you can put on the ice crystals is good, but it's not worth falling behind and getting hit by the ice wall.
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: The time I spent binding that, WASTED!
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: Enough!
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: You'll PAY for that.
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: Aughhhh!
In heroic mode, Hagara will also put the Frostflake debuff on random people. I'll put a slow patch on the ground around where it is dispelled unless you're standing in the water bubble. We just ignore it and have our hunter keep Aspect of the Pack up for the Ice section of the fight.
Main phase you have to watch out for the ice tombs, and the ice lances, and her main attack on the tank Focused Assault. Break out the people in ice tombs asap, and make sure your healers and ranged know to not take too many stacks of ice lance. The tank should also run away from focused assault on normal and get ready to pop a CD on heroic. Being a DK for heroic makes it a lot easier since I can just make sure I'm prepped to get a nice big Death Strike shield.
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: You face more than my axes, this close.
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: Feh!
Hagara the Stormbinder yells: Cowards! You pack of weakling... dogs...
Hagara isn't too bad a fight once you get the different phases down. Though she does seem to have a fixation about dogs.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Blood DK Mists of the Pandaman Talents and Glyphs
I still feel it is a bit early to be making hard and fast talent or glyph choices, but here is a pretty basic spec I could see Mornara running with. Honestly there aren't all that many actual choices to make compared to previous versions of the talent tree. And I could see a lot of them changing on a fight by fight basis.
Level 57: I've got Lichborne chosen at the moment. But on a per-fight basis I could see strong argument for Anti-Magic Shield. Purgatory is on a 3 minute internal CD, and seems like it'd only be good for small over kills. Otherwise the healers won't be able to get your health back up before three seconds runs out.
Level 58: Death's Advance. I'll never put runspeed on my boots again! Plus a sprint button every thirty seconds? Asphixiate with a Vader quote macro'd in would be hilarious, but this seems a lost more useful.
Level 60: I've picked Conversion here, but kind of at random. It really depends on the math for Death Siphon and how fast runic power generation ends up being with the change to Scent of Blood. I could also see an argument for Death Pact, but again it depends on how strapped I will be for runic power or GCDs.
Level 75: Runic Corruption seems like the best route to go here. Not as RNG as Runic Empowerment, and not another resource to manage like Blood Tap. This may lock you into a more fixed rotation, but I kinda like having my pairs of frost and unholy runes come up together.
Level 90: Desecrated Ground here seems like a useful thing. Gorefiends Grasp and the multi-yank could also be handy. I think this choice really depends on the specific boss mechanics you'll be going up against, because I could also an argument for a stun available every minute.
Vampirc blood seems to be just the same as it is now. So I'll keep that glyph. Yes, sometimes more health is good, but I think that more healing is always good. I will be VERY sad to lose the 4pc bonus from my current gear when we get to Pandaria. (Current Blood 4pc is to give your raid 50% of the effect VB has on you. That increased healing is a nice raid cooldown.)
It seems like the AMS glyph won't increase the amount of absorption, it'll just make it get used up faster. It will be a win if there is a single boss ability that you're using AMS to guard against, but not as good if there is a pulsing AoE that applies a debuff. That seems like a reasonable trade off though.
I think I like the new glyph for IBF. Current IBF is a 12sec DR on a 3min cooldown. This glyph would change that to 3sec DR on a 1.5 min cooldown. That's a pretty small window, but being able to use it more often would be very helpful. Same as with AMS, you're often using this to guard against one specific boss ability and that usually doesn't need the full 12sc duration.
The minor glyph Army of the Dead removes the taunt ability from your army of the dead ghouls. I can think of a few current uses where I wouldn't want this, but in the vast majority of cases it will be much better to have non-taunting army. Yes, they don't taunt raid bosses as is, but honestly I almost never want them to taunt anything. Having this glyph turns army from a potential major problem to just another handy dps cooldown. And if there is a specific need to have army taunt then you can unglyph just for that fight.
I'm foolishly excited about the Foul Menagerie glyph. It is solely a cosmetic glyph, but I think it will look super awesome to have a variety of undead creatures respond when I call for my army. I'm sure it won't have any sort of dps change, but honestly it's ok to just look cool.
I like that Path of Frost reduces falling damage. However, I am tempted to replace it with the Geist minor glyph. I'm also tempted by the Corpse Explosion glyph, but I actually hate it when people explode a boss so that the actual corpse goes away.
Talents:
Level 56: Roiling Blood just seems awesome. This will be really handy in any sort of multi-mob situation. No need to hit pestilence, pretty much ever again. I still miss the old glyph of Pestilence that would refresh diseases on your current target. But this will mimic that affect if you drop diseases and then hit blood boil. So double bonus of disease spreading and AoE damage.Level 57: I've got Lichborne chosen at the moment. But on a per-fight basis I could see strong argument for Anti-Magic Shield. Purgatory is on a 3 minute internal CD, and seems like it'd only be good for small over kills. Otherwise the healers won't be able to get your health back up before three seconds runs out.
Level 58: Death's Advance. I'll never put runspeed on my boots again! Plus a sprint button every thirty seconds? Asphixiate with a Vader quote macro'd in would be hilarious, but this seems a lost more useful.
Level 60: I've picked Conversion here, but kind of at random. It really depends on the math for Death Siphon and how fast runic power generation ends up being with the change to Scent of Blood. I could also see an argument for Death Pact, but again it depends on how strapped I will be for runic power or GCDs.
Level 75: Runic Corruption seems like the best route to go here. Not as RNG as Runic Empowerment, and not another resource to manage like Blood Tap. This may lock you into a more fixed rotation, but I kinda like having my pairs of frost and unholy runes come up together.
Level 90: Desecrated Ground here seems like a useful thing. Gorefiends Grasp and the multi-yank could also be handy. I think this choice really depends on the specific boss mechanics you'll be going up against, because I could also an argument for a stun available every minute.
Major Glyphs:
I've currently got Vampiric Blood, Anti-Magic Shell, and Icebound Fortitude. Honestly I'm not super impressed with those glyphs. I like the Vampiric Blood glyph, but I'm a bit dubious about AMS and IBF glyphs.Vampirc blood seems to be just the same as it is now. So I'll keep that glyph. Yes, sometimes more health is good, but I think that more healing is always good. I will be VERY sad to lose the 4pc bonus from my current gear when we get to Pandaria. (Current Blood 4pc is to give your raid 50% of the effect VB has on you. That increased healing is a nice raid cooldown.)
It seems like the AMS glyph won't increase the amount of absorption, it'll just make it get used up faster. It will be a win if there is a single boss ability that you're using AMS to guard against, but not as good if there is a pulsing AoE that applies a debuff. That seems like a reasonable trade off though.
I think I like the new glyph for IBF. Current IBF is a 12sec DR on a 3min cooldown. This glyph would change that to 3sec DR on a 1.5 min cooldown. That's a pretty small window, but being able to use it more often would be very helpful. Same as with AMS, you're often using this to guard against one specific boss ability and that usually doesn't need the full 12sc duration.
Minor Glyphs:
Path of Frost, Army of the Dead, and Foul Menagerie are what I'm rocking for Minor Glyphs at the moment.The minor glyph Army of the Dead removes the taunt ability from your army of the dead ghouls. I can think of a few current uses where I wouldn't want this, but in the vast majority of cases it will be much better to have non-taunting army. Yes, they don't taunt raid bosses as is, but honestly I almost never want them to taunt anything. Having this glyph turns army from a potential major problem to just another handy dps cooldown. And if there is a specific need to have army taunt then you can unglyph just for that fight.
I'm foolishly excited about the Foul Menagerie glyph. It is solely a cosmetic glyph, but I think it will look super awesome to have a variety of undead creatures respond when I call for my army. I'm sure it won't have any sort of dps change, but honestly it's ok to just look cool.
I like that Path of Frost reduces falling damage. However, I am tempted to replace it with the Geist minor glyph. I'm also tempted by the Corpse Explosion glyph, but I actually hate it when people explode a boss so that the actual corpse goes away.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Mists of Pandaria Trailer
I saw the Mists of Pandaria Cinematic this morning. As usual it was the excellent animation that we all expect from Blizzard. I continue to wish that the game actually looked like the expansion cinematic. Or at least that the in-game animations for orcs and humans looked closer to that cinematic.
I liked the cinematic up until the very end. It really emphasized the conflict with the Horde and Alliance. The fighting scenes between Human and Orc and then Human, Orc, and Pandaren were quite well done. However I have to say that the Pandaren just looks utterly ridiculous. It was all ok until we got a full lighted view of his face while he was chewing his cud?!? It looked like some cross between a country bumpkin and, well, a panda. Not the greatest combo.
This cinematic does a good job emphasizing the plan to bring the game back to the Horde vs. Alliance fighting. And a reminder of what both sides are really fighting for. I think my favorite moment was when the Human passes a weapon to the Orc, so that they can both fight the Pandaren. It had a very excellent feel of sibling rivalry. Which makes perfect sense to me. The Horde and Alliance have been fighting for years now, but they mostly put their differences aside and smash the current Big Bad.
I liked the cinematic up until the very end. It really emphasized the conflict with the Horde and Alliance. The fighting scenes between Human and Orc and then Human, Orc, and Pandaren were quite well done. However I have to say that the Pandaren just looks utterly ridiculous. It was all ok until we got a full lighted view of his face while he was chewing his cud?!? It looked like some cross between a country bumpkin and, well, a panda. Not the greatest combo.
This cinematic does a good job emphasizing the plan to bring the game back to the Horde vs. Alliance fighting. And a reminder of what both sides are really fighting for. I think my favorite moment was when the Human passes a weapon to the Orc, so that they can both fight the Pandaren. It had a very excellent feel of sibling rivalry. Which makes perfect sense to me. The Horde and Alliance have been fighting for years now, but they mostly put their differences aside and smash the current Big Bad.
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