What a day. I got up early, (12) so I could be first in line at the s3 vendor (yeah right). Ok actually it wasn’t until about 1, but as it happens they had extended the maintenance by exactly 1 hour :)
Â
Anyway, season 3 arena gear went on sale, in addition to new ‘vindicator’ non-set accessories. There was quite a crowd.
Â
At first I thought it was funny, but I soon realized that it’s more like some form of latent, distributed denial of service attack. Though I could target the vendor, there were so many people standing on top of him there was no way to right-click to make a transaction. This probably goes without saying, but all of the flagged children standing on the vendor? Alliance. Just when I was getting pissed, somebody reminded me there are now additional vendors in Nagrand and blade’s edge, so I took off for Nagrand where there was a much smaller crowd.
Â
No season 1 pieces for me; not really upgrades, even for off-spec slots. We also ran kara, since we were missing key pieces for a ZA group… the 20 badges were enough to put me over a threshold, plus I managed to snag an off-spec tier item. All in all, no less than *six* new epics today.
- [item]33741[/item] (arena s3 item), with [item]Golden Spellthread[/item], of course. Replaces [item]Heart-Flame Leggings[/item] for all sets.
- [item]Treads of the Life Path[/item] (badge reward), replaces [item]32999[/item] for healing and mp5 sets. Gems: [item]Brilliant Dawnstone[/item] and [item]Royal Nightseye[/item]. Not sure about the ‘chant yet. For once, it probably won’t be minor run speed, since I only intend to wear these in the mp5 set.
- [item]33907[/item] (pvp honor) replaces [item]32998[/item] for all sets.
- [item]33906[/item] (pvp honor) replaces [item]32997[/item] for all sets. Gems: [item]Dazzling Talasite[/item].
- [item]33918[/item] (pvp honor) replaces [item]33064[/item] for all sets.
- [item]Cyclone Faceguard[/item] (t4 elemental) replaces [item]Lightning Crown[/item] for dps set. Gems: [item]Brilliant Dawnstone[/item]. Not sure about the meta gem yet.
I added a new static page called Gear. This contains a table similar to the one in the first post, but is intended to be reasonably up to date.
posted by Jindi at 11:04 pm
While brewing some mana potions at ZA this evening, I finally discovered the recipe for the only flask I ever really wanted to brew for myself: [item]Flask of Mighty Restoration[/item]. Horray :) I’m elixir master spec’d, so…
Â
posted by Jindi at 11:32 pm
I play a lot of battlegrounds… 25k pvp kills since I started playing a bit over a year ago. Usually I rock the healing charts pretty hard, but it’s been especially great lately due to all the AV changes. AV is much more about pvp now, versus the pve ‘lunge for the throat’ tactic that produced 10 – 12 minute AV rounds. Not anymore. So far, my average round length is more like 30 – 45 minutes, and it’s *much* more fun now in 2.3 due to all the pvp action.
Â
In one round tonight, we’re stuck trying to round the corner at SP, because we’d pushed them back that far. They were pretty much all there, and we were pretty much all there also. This makes for maximum chain heal efficiency :) We’d be all clumped up and seed would be going off like crazy, pretty much ensuring that nothing will be lost to overhealing. I was hanging back enough that I wasn’t seen, and on one occasion I depleted my whole mana pool 3 times over, stopping to snack on mana biscuits each time. Finally they sent a high-powered hit squad around the corner and directly at me. I died and rez’d at SH…
Â
Â
(incidentally this guy Tiberium used ritual of doom while we were waiting in the cave… it was a struggle to get enough people to click it, big surprise. I got sacrificed, but my ankh was up, so as soon as I hit the dirt, I bounced back up and was heading out the gate with the rest).
Â
Anyway, then I glance at the score board…
Â
Â
Â
Final tally:
posted by Jindi at 1:38 am
Netherspite’s green beam provides a buff to +healing spells at the rate of 5% per tick (ticks are 1 second). There is also a cost reduction of spells / abilities at the rate of 1% per tick, and a debuff that reduces total mana by 200 per tick. Don’t worry, though, all of the (adjusted) mana pool is refilled at each tick. Effectively, this means you can take mana pool size and divide by 200 to get the max number of seconds you can stay in the beam before reaching 0 mana, and losing the ability to retain the beam. Somebody else (e.g. a tank) should be ready to take over the green beam, or else netherspite gets leet heals.
Â
While in the green beam, spam heals, focusing on spells with low cast time. Pretty soon, the healing buff from the beam will make even cheap spells heal for quite a bit. There is essentially no mana cost here, so go as hard as possible, taking as much load as possible off of other healers.
Â
Just before running out of mana, drop a healing stream totem. In my case, this will tick for around 450 for the next 2 minutes, pretty much taking care of portal phase damage for my group.
Â
Let’s have a look at a graph of a netherspite encounter where I used this strategy.
Â
Â
With my current gear, my healing throughput normally tops out around 1400 HPS or so when I pull out all the stops and have enough targets to soak it all up (little or no overhealing). I find it fairly interesting that this amount is very close to the amount of actual healing I was able to provide in this encounter *while in the green beam*. In effect, the bonus is almost completely wasted on overhealing.
Â
One problem with the green beam that might not be obvious is that once you stop receiving the buff, you have a smaller mana pool combined with normal mana regeneration. If you let the green beam tick all the way down to 0, you are now completely oom. Hope you saved mana tide and your pot cooldown :)
Â
Taking all these factors into account, I prefer not to own the green beam for the majority of any portal phase. I will step into it for a few seconds to get some regen, though, making sure that the primary owner of the beam isn’t out long enough to get exhaustion.
posted by Jindi at 12:39 am
Â
Â
He was pretty easy. Between the tank’s damage mitigation and my +healing bonus, and the fact that it’s an old-world boss… it’s pretty much infinitely sustainable just between the tank and I, so then it’s just a matter of getting some dps. We were cruising along fine with just three of us, but after about 15 minutes we decided to invite more to speed the process along :) He drops so much stuff! None of which is useful to me now, though he could have dropped a rare alchemy recipe, [item]Recipe: Elixir of Dream Vision[/item] that might be fun…
posted by Jindi at 11:27 pm
Why, you ask? Well, the armory is great, but provides absolutely zero historical perspective on anything. I suppose it makes sense in a way… time is a nebulous concept when it comes to the hard-core WoW player, right? :o The idea here is to keep a diary of sorts… significant loots, spec changes, play style insights, game mechanics / engine exploration, my lame attempts at what people refer to as ‘theorycrafting’, and even records of notable social events.
Â
I got some Armory-style tooltips working on this blog (wordpress) using the excellent instructions over at thebronzekettle.
Â
Let’s start out with my current spec and gear sets. This will also be an opportunity to showcase the differences between various gear sets, focusing on which stats are useful for which occasions. For each of my named gear sets, I will list all items in the set. Â You’ll see that there is a large amount of crossover between sets. This should be obvious, but I’ll go ahead and state that in no way do I assert that my gear choices are ‘the best’ for anyone. I pick gear that suits my particular play style, but more on that later. I’ll first briefly describe each gear set, then list all the items for each slot.
Â
MP5:Â This is the set I usually wear for boss fights, or any other time that mp5 is paramount (e.g. stuck trying to take stormpike graveyard in AV).
Â
Heal: Maximum +healing bonus. Used mostly for trinketed HOTs.
Â
Instance: Â Instance trash pulls. Ready to take damage, balanced between healing throughput and sustainability.
Â
DPS: For soloing / farming. Focus on spell damage, specifically nature damage, and spell crit.
Â
PvP: Â Arena, and most battlegrounds situations. Basically any time I think I’m going to get attacked by another player. Focused on stam and resilience.
Â
There are a few others that are more special-case (e.g. riding, specific farming spots), so I’ll skip them. On to the items!
Â
| Slot |
MP5 |
Heal |
Instance |
DPS |
PvP |
| Head |
[item]Cyclone Headdress[/item] |
[item]Cyclone Headdress[/item] |
[item]Cyclone Headdress[/item] |
[item]Lightning Crown[/item] |
[item]Cyclone Headdress[/item] |
| Neck |
[item]Emberspur Talisman[/item] |
[item]Emberspur Talisman[/item] |
[item]33068[/item] |
[item]33065[/item] |
[item]33068[/item] |
| Shoulders |
[item]32033[/item] |
[item]32033[/item] |
[item]32033[/item] |
[item]32033[/item] |
[item]32033[/item] |
| Back |
[item]Stainless Cloak of the Pure Hearted[/item] |
[item]Stainless Cloak of the Pure Hearted[/item] |
[item]28378[/item] |
[item]28378[/item] |
[item]33333[/item] |
| Chest |
[item]32029[/item] |
[item]32029[/item] |
[item]32029[/item] |
[item]Tidefury Chestpiece[/item] |
[item]32029[/item] |
| Wrists |
[item]Whirlwind Bracers[/item] |
[item]Whirlwind Bracers[/item] |
[item]32997[/item] |
[item]32817[/item] |
[item]32997[/item] |
| Hands |
[item]Cyclone Gloves[/item] |
[item]Cyclone Gloves[/item] |
[item]Cyclone Gloves[/item] |
[item]Tidefury Gauntlets[/item] |
[item]Cyclone Gloves[/item] |
| Waist |
[item]Belt of Gale Force[/item] |
[item]32998[/item] |
[item]32998[/item] |
[item]32804[/item] |
[item]32998[/item] |
| Legs |
[item]Heart-Flame Leggings[/item] |
[item]Heart-Flame Leggings[/item] |
[item]Heart-Flame Leggings[/item] |
[item]Stormsong Kilt[/item] |
[item]Heart-Flame Leggings[/item] |
| Feet |
[item]32999[/item] |
[item]32999[/item] |
[item]32999[/item] |
[item]32792[/item] |
[item]32999[/item] |
| Ring |
[item]Jade Ring of the Everliving[/item] |
[item]Jade Ring of the Everliving[/item] |
[item]Jade Ring of the Everliving[/item] |
[item]Ring of Unrelenting Storms[/item] |
[item]Violet Signet of the Grand Restorer[/item] |
| Ring |
[item]33064[/item] |
[item]33064[/item] |
[item]33064[/item] |
[item]34073[/item] |
[item]33064[/item] |
| Trinket |
[item]Lower City Prayerbook[/item] |
[item]29179[/item] |
[item]Lower City Prayerbook[/item] |
[item]29179[/item] |
[item]Talisman of the Horde[/item] |
| Trinket |
[item]13503[/item] |
[item]Essence of the Martyr[/item] |
[item]Scarab of the Infinite Cycle[/item] |
[item]29132[/item] |
[item]Medallion of the Horde[/item] |
| Main Hand |
[item]Shard of the Virtuous[/item] |
[item]Shard of the Virtuous[/item] |
[item]Shard of the Virtuous[/item] |
[item]Gavel of Unearthed Secrets[/item] |
[item]Shard of the Virtuous[/item] |
| Off hand |
[item]Triptych Shield of the Ancients[/item] |
[item]Triptych Shield of the Ancients[/item] |
[item]Triptych Shield of the Ancients[/item] |
[item]Triptych Shield of the Ancients[/item] |
[item]Triptych Shield of the Ancients[/item] |
| Relic |
[item]Totem of the Maelstrom[/item] |
[item]Totem of Healing Rains[/item] |
[item]Totem of Healing Rains[/item] |
[item]Totem of the Void[/item] |
[item]Totem of the Plains[/item] |
Â
Finally, my current talent build. He’s going deeeeeep!
Â
 
posted by Jindi at 6:56 pm
