Brawler’s Guild

Being at the Black Market Auction House on a PvP server is quite a harrowing experience sometimes. If we know there is a guildie going for something specific, we will go help whittle down the competion of the Horde people there. I’m a positive they do the same thing to us. There was a near riot when Ashes of Alar was up for sale a few weeks ago. One Horde Paladin had to time his bids for when his bubble was up.

My visits to the BMAH usually involve me circling around it on my mount, determining that it is safe for me to land, checking my gear to ensure I have the right set on, landing, bubbling to get the speed run increase, clicking and reading very quickly what is there. I then GTFO because, let’s face it, I am a free honor kill for most people. I usually get hit and my first reaction is OH GOD as my fingers forget any spells on my bars. By the time I get myself together, I am running back to my body thinking about what I should have done.

I had been trying to get my Blood Soaked Invitation for several days when I had enough of waiting at the AH of PvP doom. I quickly put my bid in for 50k and went to bed fully expecting to be out bid by the time I woke up.

I didn’t get out bid the entire day or night. This was my day off from work so I had a lot of time on my hands. I would play a little bit, then take a break – checking my mobile armory to see if I had gotten any mail. I watched all of the first season of “Downton Abbey” and still hadn’t been outbid. My heart started to hope that maybe I would get the invite.

I logged in about 30 mins before midnight server time and flew over to the BMAH to see for myself. I was still the high bidder on one invite with less than 30 minutes to go. My heart started pounding, I may acutally get it.

I stood there in shadow with my healing PvP gear on and hoped no one would mess with me. I then saw several Horde people flying back and forth to the mailbox at the Inn. They were bidding against each other on an invite that was dangerously close to mine at 30-48k. I stood my ground, clicking off and on. I knew I would get a mail telling me that I was outbid but I stayed there – Horde be damned.

I don’t normally mess with Horde people unless they mess with me. Here comes this goblin shadow priest laughing at me and hit me with SW:P. Oh no, bitches. I did not take it. I went after his ass with everything I had. I was surrounded by at least 5 Horde and I feared them and then bust out a Halo. Only that goblin was attacking me. I got his ass, too (with some help from a Paladin healing me). Right as I got a killing blow, I won my invite to the Brawler’s Guild. I was elated!

I got the Bloodsoaked Invitation out of the mailbox with trembling hands and took the portal to Stormwind. I clicked on my invite and instead of giving me a quest it gave me an achievement. Confused, I carried on to the Tram. I talked to the Brawler’s Guild Queue Worgen and got ready for my first fight.

I really enjoyed watching other people fight. Apparently they form raid groups so you can have as many raid buffs as you can get before your match. I didn’t know this so I decined the group invite.

The message on my screen said I was next in line and then suddenly I was in the arena facing a crocolisk with 1 mil health. Not too bad, I thought. He charged at me. Someone whispered me about buffing them and I was promptly eaten.

I was so embarrased that I could not show my face in there the rest of the night. It was only the next day that I went back to beat the crockolisk. I’m still rank one.

I wouldn’t say that was the best 50k I’ve ever spent. /cry

Score One for Scantily-Clad WoW Dudes!

Too bad he’s SCARY!

New Vol’Jin Model via MMO Champ

I think I see a blue butt cheek… eewwww… And is that an extra toe on his heel?

So Far, So Good

It’s been 2 weeks since my move to Ner’zhul. I’ve only been killed by a Horde person 4 times, three times by the same rogue at the Klaxxi QM.

Being on a high population server has taken a little while to adjust to. I really took Skywall for granted in a few aspects and didn’t even know it at the time. Quest mobs can be scarce when there are 30 or more people after the same small goat herd. I have yet to find more than one Dark Soil at a time. There is much more competion for fishing pools – took forever to get a stack of Jade Lungfish last night.

In some ways being on a high pop server is pretty nice. I always have someone to talk to because the guild just has more people. The auction house business is robust and I’ve made over 45k since transferring. More people means more need for enchanting scrolls and epic gear – I am carving out a nice profit here.

The raiding is a lot of fun, too. I was shocked to learn that I am the only girl on my 25 MAN team. I thought that surely, statistically, there would be more than just me. But, for now, I am the only one. I can hang with the boys so it’s not much of an issue. (I was also the only girl on my 10 man team but we had several girls that would fill in on a regular basis.) Talking on Mumble that first time was pretty funny – they all dropped camp fires so I would “have something to do”.

We are stuck on Elegon right now. Disc is so broken. It was bad before but with the healing stress of Elegon I really feel like I’m not pulling my weight. I’ve gotten a lot of upgrades and my spirit is now over 9k but I doesn’t matter how much I have, I always need more. I’m always casting but I don’t seem to budge on the healing chart. I found part of the problem was that Skada wasn’t tracking Atonement heals but now that it’s fixed I still don’t see a big leap. I’m used to not being the top heals but during the same fight our Monk does at least 4-5 million more. I really hope it gets fixed soon.

I’m Starting to Like this PvP Server

Today I killed my first Hordie out in the world.

It was that damn Marmot Tillers Daily, too. An Undead Warlock decided to try to kill me as I was oh-so-carefully stomping the Mook-Mooks. He must not have seen the other 5 Alliance people behind me talking to the Hozen guy.

I noticed a de-buff and thought, “what the heck is that?” I moused over it. I turned around and there was a Lock hitting me with spells. I silenced him and dotted him up. My fellow Alliance also got in on the action and between all of us, he died pretty quickly. I felt pretty good about my fellow faction players for helping me out. 🙂

I smushed my alloted 25 Mook-Mooks and took off back to Halfhill. On one of my quest givers was a Tauren on the TLPD who wasn’t moving. I ran around and rotated my camera at all angles, trying to turn in my quest when I see the Tauren go sailing across the screen! An Alliance Deathknight had deathgripped him away from the quest giver. Freaking sweet.

Movin’ on Up

 After some much unneeded guild drama for the past 2 or so months, I found myself on the WoW forums looking for another guild. I did so with a heavy heart because I have some friends that are very dear to me that I didn’t want to leave. The recent advent of CRZ and groups made my decision much easier. I know that if I want to see my buddies again, I can group with them and it will be just fine.

I found a 25 man guild on Ner’zhul in need of a Disc Priest. I hem’d and haw’d for several weeks before replying to their post and then app’ing to the guild. I kept thinking things would get better once MoP hit. I wanted to keep my options open. But, things did not improve, they got worse.

Now here I am on a brand new server with a brand new guild with 300-odd people I don’t know yet. Did I mention this is a PvP server? I didn’t realize it was a PvP server until after I got accepted. I love to PvP inside battlegrounds but out in the world is a whole nother story. I was scared; how am I going to get my dailies done and my Loremaster achieves with people trying to kill me constantly?!

Last night was my first time ever on a PvP server. I asked my new guildies if I should wear my PvP gear or my PvE gear? They told me they rarely get killed doing dailies. I was hopeful. I am a total n00b at Shadow Pv-whatever.

I mounted up on my new Ruby Panther and flew over to the Golden Pagoda. I got my quests and noted the piles of bones by the quest givers. “Oh, dear” I thought, “those Pandas look so serene next to the carnage”. Suddenly a Tauren Druid appeared next to me. I tensed. I waited. I didn’t breathe. My mouse hovered over the Silence spell – just in case. Nothing happened – they went about their business and paid no attention to me. I started to calm down a little. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

One of the dailies was for the behemoth. I pulled him myself and was doing ok until those little spirit guys decided to aggro to me. I hit my Mind Sear, thinking nothing of it, and proceeded to hit a Troll Hunter and his pet. He was helping me kill that behemoth, too. I felt terrible. I had to run away because my Vuhdo settings didn’t transfer between servers and I didn’t have the keybinds I am used to. I got up on my mount and flew to the top of the Pagoda, thinking I would be safe there for a minute to reset the Vuhdo. Think again. That Troll came after me with some of his friends. I didn’t know what hit me. I couldn’t get my body back so I got 10 minutes of Res Sickness for my trouble.

My first death on a PvP server taught me a few things:

1) DO NOT AOE. EVER. Multi-dot but don’t trust Tab-Targeting. You can’t take a dot back once you hit someone with it.

2) Don’t think that being up high will save you.

3) My farm is the bestest place to AFK since no one can see me. Farmer Yoon, save me!

4) Make sure you are clicking the quest giver and not the Horde person standing on top of the quest giver. Don’t click if your pointer is a little sword!

5) Not every Horde person is out to get you. I am positive they just want to get their mountain of dailies done just like I do. That said, there are some jack asses in the world who will mess with me eventually.

I didn’t die today doing dailies because I was exceedingly careful. I will be so glad when I get to exalted and I won’t have to be around a lot of people.

Speaking of a lot of people, there are a shit ton of people on Ner’zhul. I would maybe see a handful of people on Skywall out and about. I am up to my eyeballs in people here. I can’t see the ground in Halfhill because there are so many people. So many opportunities for me to mis-click and get myself in trouble. (The Marmot Mook-Mook Tillers daily was particularly harrowing.)

My first day on Ner’zhul was eventful. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

MoP: What can I do at Max Level?

The Blues have said they wanted to make more content for max level characters. They did this with a whole lot of dailies. Don’t let the word “dailes” scare you off. Yes they give you rep and are repeatable but they are a whole new monster compared to old style dailies. They took the best of the Molten Front and improved on it.

So now that you’ve hit 90, are dailies the only thing left to you? Not really. Here is what I really enjoyed doing at 90 on the beta.  

1) My Own Personal Farm

I have to provide the food for the raids my guild does because no one else wants to. (sigh) The best way to go about getting the enormous amounts of mats needed will be to have your own farm from The Tillers and maybe even a farm on your alt(s). There will be different feasts that will feed 10 and 25 man raid groups. The 25 man recipes take a lot more in the way of mats, up to 100 of whatever kind you need.

I really love my little farm. I can’t really put it into words how much I love it. I like that it is phased so that only I can see it – nobody can mess with my crops. And I feel like it is a good place to come home to after a long day. Eventually, I had my own little stray dog that I nursed back to health and nice furniture in my house. I could even /pet my dog and he would respond.

The Tillers will give you all sorts of goodies for your farm when you make friends with them. (The best being the mailbox and live stock.) They even give you a funny little goat mount to ride in 3 colors.

2) Lorewalkers Rep Quests/Archeology

Another fun thing is finding the artifacts all over the world for various stories of Pandaria. This is a really neat way of providing lore on their own but once you complete an achievement, Lorewalker Cho will send you a quest item in the mail.

Once you take the item to Lorewalker Cho, it’s time to sit back and watch the story unfold. A little cutscene type of event will start and he will tell you the full story of whatever it was you found. He will tell you about the orgins of the Wandering Isle and how a few Pandarans left to see the world. He will tell you about the Mogu and how they enslaved the Pandaran people. He has many stories to tell as long as you have the willpower to find the artifacts.

The best part about the Lorewalker’s stories are that you can watch them at any time. The Library in the Seat of Knowledge will start to fill up as you find more and more artifacts. If you want to see a specific item, go find it on one of the shelves. If you want to relive a particular story, talk to Cho who will be more than happy to tell it to you again.

In the same area is the archeology daily for Valor Points and a bit of gold. You can turn in your Panda/Mogu artifacts for relics of the other races so you don’t need to leave the new continent. Archeology leveling is a lot faster now that you can dig in a smaller, more compact landmass. If you already have all the rares from the other races, you can buy a map that will shuffle your dig sites on Pandaria. (There’s a Mogu dig site in the northern part of the Jade Forest that is a bitch because it’s so huge and so many hostile mobs running around.)

3) Heroics

Heroics are challenging but not so challenging that they will take hours out of your day like early Cata heroics did. They are fun and they are short without a feeling of “that’s it?” Blizz nailed the right amount of content for each one. The bosses are interesting again and the gear looks really nice.

4) Scenarios

I did a few scenarios and I liked them. This may be why I think Theramore is so terrible. The other scenarios are really a lot of fun and are interesting. I wish Blizz wouldn’t have introduced the populace as a whole to scenarios with Theramore, the weakest one. I call it weak in terms of story and overall game play.

The other scenarios have questlines associated with them. You know why you are doing what you’re doing. You know why there are guys trying to crash your beer party because you did the questline and you got to know the town’s people.

5) Dailies

The dailies run the gamut of difficult (Golden Lotus) to unnessisarily punishing (Shado-Pan) to super easy (Anglers/Tillers). There are dailies for every kind of player. I only have an hour to play before work so I could do my farm and Tillers and cooking dailies before I left. They are light and fun so I don’t get overly frustrated before coming to work. When I get home, I have time to spend on the more punishing dailies from the Shando-Pan.

Dailies should be optional (or very close to optional) for most people by the time they finish the major questlines if all they want are the rep epics.

I would suggest to anyone who wants to see the whole story behind the new continent to do the dailies in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. Everyday the people there have new trials and hardships to face from the invading Mogu so the quests reflect what is going on. (The Forlone Spire in Hyjal really annoyed me. I didn’t think we should have to destroy that spire every damn day. Did the fire elements sneak in while the Druids were alseep to rebuild their tower every, single night? You would think someone would have made a schedule for a night watch after the first couple of times. /rant)

6) Everything Else

Of course there will be leveling professions, raiding, LFR and new battlegrounds to play. I didn’t get too far into those because I wanted to save at least something to be a suprise when it goes live.

But, again, take your time whatever you choose to do. We are going to be 90 for a good while.

How to MoP, Day One

The release of Pandaria is coming closer and closer with each passing day. I am happy I was able to take part in the beta and get a good understanding of what is going to be happening that first day. I wasn’t in the Cata beta so I relied on others’ experiences to make heads or tails of what I should be doing.

Here is a list of my best suggestions to make 85-90 go as smoothly as possible.

1) Log in, head straight for your profession trainers!

I know you are going to be all hopped up on Moutain Dew and tacos in the dead of the night when the servers come up. I know you are going to want to take the first air ship to Pandaria and straight into new content. But, stop for a second and get your professions trained up. It can be really frustrating to spot a node and not getting any skill points for it. Nodes are going to be difficult to find with all the competition so make it count.

2) Disenchant/sell everything you don’t need. You are going to need all the bag space you can muster. Upgrade your bags if you have the gold.

3) SAVE EVERYTHING

Cooking mats drop from mobs in zones now. For example, Witch Berries will drop from the little fairy looking guys. Before you can set up your own farm at level 90, there is no other way to obtain them. Save them even if you are not going to level cooking – sell them on the AH or toss them in the guild bank for those of us who are.

Cooking is very complicated this expac and extremely time consuming. Don’t try to do all of the specialties at once. Pick the one that is best for your spec and class first. Then, if you are a completist, like me, pick one at a time to level.

While you are cooking, save whatever you make even if you can’t use it. There are people you can befriend in the Tillers faction that love them some home cooking and offer quests to gain rep by making them food. Also, there is a daily quest for the cloud serpent riders that requires you to make Fish Cakes – one of the basic cooking leveling recipes.

4) Get the flight point to your new capital city ASAP.

You don’t have to wait for the quest line for the opening of the gates to the Vale of Eternal Blossoms in order to reach our new capital cities. There is a “great wall” that runs across Panadaria’s western midsection. Get yourself up on the wall and fall into the zone. The new cities are just past the big mogu guys in the center of the Vale (the same guys on the log in screen). Horde on one side and Alliance on the other with Mogu’shan Palace and The Lorewalkers in the middle. This may be a death run if you’re still 85ish but worth the convience it provides later (central hub, trainers, vendors and flying trainer for level 90). Set your hearth here. On the beta there are portals to the old world cities much like Dalaran in Wrath. Also the cooking quest hub of Halfhill Market (and your farm) is just a short flight away.

4) Save some achievements for 90, after you have your flying.

The first rep I am going to actively work on is The Lorewalkers. It involves finding artifacts from all over Pandaria for quest items. I am not going to work very hard on this until after I can fly. Some of these artifacts are difficult to get to and flying will make it that much easier and faster.

5) If you want rep in the fastest way possible, do all the quests before hitting up the dailies.

The epics for sale from each faction are available at honored and revered. You should get at least honored from doing all the 85-90 quests. The new tabbards will not work the same way as Wrath and Cata ones. They are rewards and not for grinding rep in dungeons.

6) Don’t try to do everything at once.

The amount of daily quests available at 90 is truly amazing. Pick one faction at a time. We are going to be in Pandaria at least another year and half to two years.

Take your time. Enjoy the story. Look at all the beautiful scenery that Blizz created. Get your money’s worth. You paid for an entire game and not just raiding/PvP or whatever else you perfer. Yes, we all want to rush to 90 but sometimes the journey is more fun than the destination.

Mists of Pandaria Discipline Priest Heroic Shopping List

Mists is a little over a month away so now is a good time to plan ahead. The loot tables are mostly done. Each beta build brings us closer and closer to the final product. The beta is widly different now than it was a few months ago.

The first thing to address will be stat choices. What are we going to have to stack this time around? I am here to tell you that Intellect is no longer king of the hill. Spirit, at this gear level at least, will be what we want the most of. Intellect does not adjust your mana pool anymore, it is the stat of spellpower and crit. At level 90, I have 300K mana and that will be all I have from here on out.

Rapture procs are about Spirit and not Intellect. We like juicy Rapture procs so stack spirit. I’m not saying dump everything into Spirit but we need to have it on nearly every piece of gear. Gem and enchant for it if  you have to. There will never be a time in a heroic when you think, “damn I have too much spirit”.

Stats will look like:

Spirit – Haste – Int – Mastery – Crit – Stam

I’m not going to get into the JP and VP Vendors on this list. The gear from heroics is a lot better and it will take a good while to get the Valor and the rep to even purchase that gear. (I’m sure we will all be rocking JP stuff to make the minium item level for heroics when the expac goes live.)

Helm

Fallout Filtering Hood  This is our best choice because of the Haste and a nice socket bonus. It drops from Saboteur Kip’tilak, the third boss of Gate of the Setting Sun.

Whitemane’s Embroidered Chapeau Another good choice if you can’t get any better. There’s no Spirit but it does have some nice Haste. It drops off of High Inquisitor Whitemane in Scarlet Monestary. 

Shoulders

Regal Silk Shoulderpads These are the only blue cloth shoulders with Spirit. They come from the first boss of Mogushan Palace.

Shoulders of the Engulfing Wind These are another choice because of the Haste. They drop from the last boss of Gate of the Setting Sun.

Chest

There are no heroic drops of chest pieces with spirit. There is a quest reward Mending Robes of the Golden Lotus.

Robes of Fevered Dreams This will be about the best you can do from dungeons. The other cloth chest is a DPS cloth with hit rating.

The best thing to do is get the crafted epic chest, Robes of Creation. It takes 6 Imperial Silk so expect to pay a pretty penny for it if you aren’t a tailor.

Wrist

Bombardment Bracers This is the best option for us. Nice tasty Haste and Spirit. They drop from Commander Vo’jak, I want to say the second boss of Siege of Nuizoa Temple.

Frenzyswarm Bracers Are a good second choice. They drop from the last boss of Gate of the Setting Sun.

Waist

Fermenting Belt The only belt with Spirit. Drops from the last boss of Stormstout Brewery.

The other two blue dungeon belts have hit rating with crit or mastery.

Cloak

Cloak of Hidden Flasks This is an interesting option. I dont think I’ve seen a cloak quite like that before. This is the only dungeon drop with Spirit. Drops from Hopptallus, the second boss of Stormstout Brewery.

Cape of Entanglement Is another option. Drops from Liu Flameheart, the third boss of Temple of the Jade Serpent.

Hands

Breesebinder Handwraps For dungeon drops only, this is the best bet. Haste and Spirit on the same item. It drops from General Pa’valak, the second boss of Siege of Niuzao Temple.

Paralyzing Gloves A good alternative to the ones above. They drop from the Sha of Doubt in Temple of the Jade Serpent.

Another good option is the crafted epic Gloves of Creation. They take 4 Imperial Silk so they shouldn’t set you back as much as the crafted chest. But they should last you a good while until you can get your tier.

Legs

Leggings of the Hallowed Fire The only legs with spirit. They come from High Inquisitor Whitemane in Scarlet Monastery.

Leggins of the Frenzy Is an option, no Spirit but some nice Haste. They come from Commander Ri’mok, second boss of Gate of the Setting Sun.

Feet

Flameheart Sandals Again, the only Dungeon blue with spirit. Drops from Liu Flameheart, the third boss of Temple of the Jade Serpent.

Soulbinder Treads Another good drop with Haste but be prepared to fight the DPS for them. They come from the first boss of Mogushan Palace.

Neck

Necklace of Disorientation We have a few options for our neck slot. I would pick mastery over crit. This one drops from the Sha of Violence in Shado Pan Monestary.

Mindcapture Pendant Is the one with the crit. It come from the first boss of Mogushan Palace.

Rings

Viscous Ring Spirit and Haste make this the best. Drops from Commander Ri’mok, second boss of Gate of the Setting Sun.

Beastbinder Ring Here’s the only other ring with Spirit on it. It comes from Houndmaster Braun in Scarlet Monestary.

Ring of Malice Is another good choice, no Spirit but has Haste. It drops from Taran Zhu, fourth boss of Shado Pan Monestary.

Alemental Seal Very similar to the Ring of Malice, this one has more Haste. Drops from the last boss of Stormstout Brewery.

Trinkets

Vial of Ichorous Blood This is my favorite trinket. It’s a “use” trinket. Combine it with shielding the tank for a larger Rapture proc. Rapture procs are normally around 9k but with the effect of this trinket its closer to 14k mana back. This is a must have. Get it from General Pa’Valak, the third boss of Siege of Niuzao Temple.

Price of Progress Here is your other blue BiS trinket. Get it from Darkmaster Gandling in Scholomance. I haven’t seen it for myself yet so I don’t know the proc rate. Looks like the new version of Tears of of the Vanquished from five man ToC.

Empty Fruit Barrel Is a good choice if you are terribly light on Spirit. It drops from Ook-Ook, the first boss of Stormstout Brewery.

Vision of the Predator Could be viable for a heavy Smite/PW: Solace caster like me. Take it only if your caster dps doesn’t need it.

The Current State of Disc on MoP Beta

Praise the gods that add-ons have been enabled for the MoP Beta. I tried without my Vuhdo and didn’t fail as hard as I thought I would but I just don’t have the speed to click on everyone and then the spell. But, now I have my glorious Vuhdo back and I am healing the new 5-man heroics. I’ve healed nearly all of them now so I am ready to really think about how Disc is right now.

Blizzard said it didn’t want healing to be as punishing as it was at the start of Cata. I think it is about the same right now. We can’t get to better gear and the dungeons don’t always have loot so that factors in. There are crafted epics and rep epics now. But, no rep tabards. You have to do the dailies to get the rep. I’m not sure if this is intended or not. The only faction I am exalted with is the Jinyu guys in the Jade Forest. They don’t do me much good even if I could get to them.

Anyway, lets talk about the new, important spells first.

Power Word: Solace

The biggest update for me was the inclusion of a new level 45 ability called Power Word: Solace (offensive spell that restores 2%, no mana cost and 1.5 sec cast time, no CD). Mana regen is balls right now. It is seriously weak. I’m at around 5K regen in combat but then you see that I have 300K mana to work with. Five thousand regen is a drop in the bucket. I shouldn’t have to sit after every trash pull or use my Shadowfiend on CD. Enter PW:Solace to save the day, almost. It certainly helps the regen and it adds a new way to play. Every second you aren’t casting is a wasted second you could be getting 2% of your mana back. Now we have to balance Smite Healing and Solace regen. A typical pull for me is POM and Shield the tank, PW: Solace to regain my mana back and then start active healing or Atonement/Smite healing. I don’t have a second where I am not casting something and I like it.

I’m not saying healing isn’t frustrating because it is but not because of the healing mechanics or regen. The Cataclysm mindset of crowd control and careful pulls has gone out the window. Now every tank pulls everything, all the time, regardless of anyone in the group willing to CC. They pull regardless of my mana. I’ve literally seen tanks from all over the world, all flavors of tanks; and none of them want to CC anymore. It’s very stressful because my regen is so low. I worry I won’t have enough mana to get through trash pulls.

Spirit Shell

Spirit Shell has gone through several incarnations. First it was a stackable, cheap absorb that would heal once it was fully used. I liked that idea but you had a 2 second cast time for each stack so it was prohibitive for mobility. I would like it to have been instant cast like a Druid’s Lifebloom.

But now Blizzard has come up a new version of it: “Your Heal, Flash Heal, Greater Heal, and Prayer of Healing spells cause absorption shields instead of healing.”

Think of it as a Divine Aegis you can control. Spirit Shell doesn’t cost any mana but you still pay for whatever spell you use after it. I could see it macro’d to Inner Focus and Prayer of Healing but I have never used it over a straight up healing spell. Spells are so expensive that you don’t want to waste them on something that isn’t really worth it. Heals crit so much anyway it just seems useless.

I hope the devs take another look at the way it was before. Its so late in the beta that I don’t feel they will but a girl can hope.

Void Shift

Void Shift is amazing. You swap your health with another person in your party. It is really useful in conjunction with Desperate Prayer (if talented). I would put it up there with Pain Suppression in its usefulness. Tanks can be so squishy that I need to use everything in my toolbox to keep them up just like the early days of Cata. It feels like all or nothing, very similar to the old Paladin spell Divine Intervention (the Paladin sacrificed himself to save one party member).

I am sure we will talk about good times to Void Shift once it goes on live. I am also sure that raiding Shadow Priests will be required to use it as a raid CD since it is a base line spell. I also wonder about arena. It would be so easy to switch my health with a team member if I was being focused on. It has a six-minute CD for now so it should be usable in arena. Only time will tell for sure.

Level 90 Talents

Cascade: Launches a Holy bolt at the target that grows in power as it travels, which causes up to (10,108 + 97.5% of SP) damage to an enemy, or up to (10,108 + 97.5% of SP) healing to an ally. This effect can bounce from allies to other allies, or from enemies to other enemies. Each time it bounces it will split into 2 bolts, preferring farther away targets, and never hitting the same target twice. Cascade can bounce up to 3 times. Instant, 10% base mana, 25 sec CD.

Divine Star: Fires a Divine Star in front of you, traveling 24 yds, causing (3,370 + 32.5% of SP) Divine damage to all enemies and (3,370 + 32.5% of SP) healing to all allies within 6 yds of its path. After reaching its destination it will return to you, also dealing damage and healing to all targets in its path. Instant, 5% base mana, 15 sec CD.

Halo: Creates a ring of Holy energy around you that quickly expands and grows in power, up to 30 yds away. Deals up to (20,216 + 195.0% of SP) Holy damage to enemies, and up to 0 healing to allies, with the greatest effect at 25 yds. Instant, 15% of base mana, 40 sec CD.

 

I honestly prefer Cascade to the other two. The mana price is pretty steep but it heals for a massive amount. I think of it as POM’s younger, cooler brother. It seems to crit quite a bit and will proc DA shields. The animation is very beautiful. I love to watch it in action. It’s a beautiful rain of light from all directions. It will bounce off of pets, too.

Divine Star and Halo require you to think about where you are compared to others. I have too much going on to really think about it right now. The cost and CD on Halo seem too much for what it actually does. It sounds really cool but it doesn’t seem to work like it reads. I had Halo spec’d in Shadow and I got really leery of using it because it will pull an entire room causing wipes. This may explain why I don’t want to use it even in healing.

 

The State of Tanks

 

I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the tanks. It is harder than hell to get a tank that isn’t a Monk in a random. Monks are everywhere. I understand people want to play the new class but Paladins, Druids, Warriors and, yes, even Death Knights need some testing, too.

 

The leather wearing tanks (Monks and Druids) are the worst in terms of shear squishiness. I know this may be a Captain Obvious statement but I don’t have any problems with feral Druids on live. My own Druid isn’t hard on healers so I am honestly confused.

 

I think part of the problem is the level 85 pre-made characters. Most people aren’t leveling a Monk from 1-85 the old-fashioned way and learning as they go. They are rolling the ready-made 85 with no clue what to do. They may not know how to manage their defensive CDs yet and it really shows. It is harder than hell to keep some of them alive. I look at their gear and they have the right idea but they don’t have years and years of experience to draw from like the other classes. I think once MoP goes live Monks will be more inline with the other tanks since people will have to level them from scratch.

 

On live servers I have the worst problems with Death Knights but on beta they are the easiest to heal next to Paladins. Warriors are still very spiky but nothing I’m not already used to.

 

All in all, healing is difficult but not as bad Cata but it is damn close. Heroics don’t take hours anymore so that is a step in the right direction. But, having to drink after every pull is annoying, especially if you have an impatient, Monk tank. The regen needs to be much higher to balance out our inflated mana pools. I do like balancing Smite Heals and PW: Solace. I also really like Cascade.

 

Disc is a lot of fun right now. It needs some tweaks but, overall, it is a nice mix of the familiar and new.

Beta Update

The beta has been up and down and up and down for the last couple of weeks. When I was able to get on it, the quests were bugged beyond all belief. It wasn’t worth my time to try to play it until the crashing issues were fixed. Now I am happy to say that I don’t crash as much but it’s still a pain to get anything done.

Rapture has made it’s triumphant return. I didn’t really miss it before but I still haven’t gotten my chicken self into any of the new five mans. I have pulled 3-4 mobs at once and I have yet to see it proc. The bubble is just so strong right now that it takes a heck of a lot of pop it. I can’t manage to get it to pop before it expires.

Borrowed Time is also back. Nothing has changed with it. I am glad I don’t have to waste points on it because it is now passive to all Disc Priests.

Holy Nova is now a glyph. At least it’s back in some form.

Glyphs are still not fun. The only “fun” one we have so far is Levitate that puts a little cloud around you. I haven’t tried it yet. I can’t help but wonder if they don’t have any ideas for “fun” Priest glyphs. (My suggestion: Glyph of Noble Steed: Levitate now affects your mount.) I made a premade Warrior and they have some really fun glyphs like scaring away critters.

As for Shadow I am really disappointed that Shadowy Apparitions are not a spell and are back to random procs. We got Devouring Plague back at the cost of our controlled Apparitions. I don’t know why we can’t have both. I was really having fun controlling my Apparitions and got into a good groove with them but, oh well. They may change it back.

Once I dingged 86, I got 22k more mana in Disc and 20k mana in Shadow.It took a good while to ding because a lot of quests are bugged and you couldn’t complete them. Some of them are fixed now but the client still crashes randomly.

The quest rewards are odd. You get one thing for the spec you are currently in. I have yet to replace any of my DS raid gear but I’m still only level 86.There are gear vendors to fill in the gaps between specs but the gear is still really bad looking and not much of an upgrade. Also, the gear is now properly disenchanting to MoP materials. But no tailoring patterns yet.

The best quest reward I have gotten is a trinket. I don’t want to spoil the quest line because it is a lot of fun. At the end I got a mastery trinket that had an on use effect of summoning my very own Socks the Raccoon!

He’s so cute!

He dies quite suddenly a few moments later. :3