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Shifting Perspectives: Tree 1, Arthas 0 |
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Wednesday, 10 March 2010 03:00 |
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week, we save the world (of Warcraft).
Originally this week's article was going to concern stomping Karazhan from top-to-bottom as a feral/resto druid, and then I got Big Bad Wolf for the opera event. Suffice it to say that the stomping took an abrupt U-turn, and I never got pictures or video of the other Kara fights that I've successfully solo'd on dozens of other occasions (though I grant they were all occasions that did not include humiliating wipes to an overgrown dog). If I weren't in the middle of a time crunch it probably would've been doable, but regrettably I will have to run a feature on how to make 1,000 gold soloing Karazhan on a later date. In the meantime, Alaron's managed to solo Big Bad Wolf successfully, but my main is in the somewhat sticky situation of not being a night elf.
With the upcoming Icecrown raid buffs going all the way to 30% damage/healing/health/absorbs eventually, more and more raids are going to find their way to Arthas. Buffs aside, a lot of Arthas' difficulty lies in execution, and I started jotting down a few notes that I hope might be helpful to other druids likely to attempt the fight. We were fortunate to get both the 10- and 25-man version down, and I got astoundingly lucky on one 10-man attempt with back-to-back selections as a Harvest Soul target while I was running a video capture. I've seen a lot of comments online that caster druids aren't well-suited to dealing with this, and that's just not true at all.Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Tree 1, Arthas 0 Filed under: Druid, Analysis / Opinion, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives Shifting Perspectives: Tree 1, Arthas 0 originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Read more: |
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Blood Sport: Should racials be removed? |
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Wednesday, 10 March 2010 02:00 |
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women? Blood Sport investigates the entirety of all-things arena for gladiators and challengers alike. C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in WoW.com's arena column.
Listening Music: Fix You, the author's favorite Coldplay song. The best part of this performance, the "crowd run," happens 3 minutes into it. Watch it, if just for that.
Last Week: Last week, we discussed the racials of blood elves, undead, and trolls, oh my! The last two Blood Sport articles look at racial abilities from a perspective of effectiveness in the arena.
This Week: We'll be discussing racials, for the third (and last) week straight. A lot of arena players would rather play without racials entirely. On ArenaJunkies, there are lots of people who subscribe to a nerf movement every few weeks and add a little signature or avatar in to say "nerf Will of the Forsaken" or "nerf Every Man For Himself." What if racials got removed? Would WoW be better or worse because of it?
I have an opinion on it that I'm going to share with you -- hopefully you'll agree. So let's weigh some arguments for removing racials...
Cons (removing racials would be bad):
Identity
The forsaken just wouldn't be the same without those three translucent exclamation points. Before I played WoW, I saw a video of an orc using Blood Fury, and I was amazed. The animation looks so cool, and you can get it at level one! Every time I see a tauren shaman run to me, I instinctively jump behind a pillar. It'd be hard for me to get it out of my system that he can't War Stomp anymore.Continue reading Blood Sport: Should racials be removed? Filed under: PvP, Blood Sport (Arena PvP) Blood Sport: Should racials be removed? originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Read more: |
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Totem Talk: Leveling as restoration |
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Wednesday, 10 March 2010 01:00 |
 Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how. Brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and the For The Lore podcast.
Three years ago if you had mentioned to anyone you were going to level as a healing spec, they would have scoffed at you and called you ambitious or question your sanity. It was not a very common occurrence and if someone mentioned that was how they leveled, it was often asked how long it took. Two years ago it was slightly more common to see people leveling as a healing spec. With the amount of quests and gear available for each dungeon in Burning Crusade, healers were in hot demand to go forth with a heroic party and clear these zones out. Leveling was still slow going when compared to DPS, but you could do it. When Wrath of the Lich King came out things were a lot easier for healers than in previous content if they decided to level in their healing spec, but it was still slower than if you were a DPS spec. Instances still were healer friendly, but while questing there were several NPC that you just couldn't kill without being DPS. Now things have changed and it is easier than ever to level as a healer!
Continue reading Totem Talk: Leveling as restoration Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk Totem Talk: Leveling as restoration originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Read more: |
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Big Crits, a new WoW reality series |
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Wednesday, 10 March 2010 00:00 |
At the end of the summer last year I had this crazy idea: to make a TV show about a raiding guild. I was inspired by the relationships and interactions in my current guild and how much they impacted me personally -- both good and bad. I fleshed out the idea over beers (many beers) with some friends. We talked about logistics, equipment, participation, but most importantly, the goal. I wanted the show to be about the people, to be about the interaction between the raiders. And I don't mean ninja-looting drama-mama QQing. I wanted to explore the things that go on in a group of people trying to work together online to accomplish something great. There's more to raiding than drama. Things like, as I'm fond of saying, "the soul crushing 1% wipes and the absolute exhilaration of taking down a new boss for the first time."
I worked on a pitch and reached out to friends & family in "the biz" but I spent most of my time trying to explain concepts such as a "raid" or a "boss" or that when I said "guild" I meant a group of MMO gamers and not an actor's or writer's union -- which made for some very confusing conversations at first. Frustrated, I wasn't sure I'd ever convince anyone this was an idea worth doing. But I knew it was. Continue reading Big Crits, a new WoW reality series Filed under: Guilds, News items Big Crits, a new WoW reality series originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Read more: |
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Lichborne: The rise of PvE frost DPS on the patch 3.3.3 PTR |
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Tuesday, 09 March 2010 23:00 |
Welcome to Lichborne, your weekly look at the world of the death knight.
With Patch 3.3.3 on the PTR and looking closer and closer to going live, the buzz around death knights is just about where you'd expect it to be, squarely on the frost talent tree. This is especially true of frost DPS. While it once reigned supreme as a cornerstone of the famous 39/32 builds, it's fallen out of favor, and even Threat of Thassarian hasn't been enough to keep it from being consigned to the status of third rate, a pariah from any raid that already has a shaman to provide Windfury.
Blizzard's obviously dedicated to getting the tree properly buffed in Patch 3.3.3, but have they succeeded? Let's take a look at the frost tree thus far, and what we may be doing with our own builds and talents in a few weeks' time.Continue reading Lichborne: The rise of PvE frost DPS on the patch 3.3.3 PTR Filed under: Death Knight, (Death Knight) Lichborne Lichborne: The rise of PvE frost DPS on the patch 3.3.3 PTR originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Read more: |
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Updates and clarifications on the mastery system |
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Tuesday, 09 March 2010 23:15 |
We posted yesterday about some of the aspects of the mastery system, a new feature in Cataclysm that will allow players to obtain bonuses to whatever talent tree they choose to follow. Today Eyonix answered a few questions to clarify the system and how it will work with regards to specific classes and abilities:
- 1. 28/28/20 spec. Does mastery on gear affect both highest trees or give no benefit at all?
- 2. How are ferals and Dks as tanks working with mastery system in place? Are they to care about it for threat or do they have separate bonuses.
- 3. How are the non-pure classes going to be balanced against those with a full 76 point passive benefit? Balance, enhancement(not so much), shadow, feral, ele, resto, holy and Ret all have this issue.
- 4. Hybrids who use spells not improved by their spec on occasion such as heals or the extra lava burst are feeling that their non-specced spells are going to be extremely weak as compared to now.
Check out the answers after the break!Continue reading Updates and clarifications on the mastery system Filed under: News items, Cataclysm Updates and clarifications on the mastery system originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Read more: |
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