The World of Warcraft Thread

[Pragma]

Ah okay, hard to tell from that angle, plus the glow threw me off. Such a nice weapon in either case.

[Frosstbyte]

Yeah, it's the claymore. That's my pvp weapon. 1.1k raptor crits are a delicious thing indeed. My pve weapons are a blessed qiraji war axe and blessed qiraji pugio with 15 agi enchants, but they look pretty retarded, so I opted to post a SS with a more impressive weapon. The fact that its purple-y glow matches CS doesn't hurt either.

[Scorps]

H=Gratz on the gear...Im still working on my T1 and T2 for my mage.

T1
4/8

T2
1/8
hope to get bracer tonight in BWL

[boom29]

Originally Posted by Frosstbyte

Yup. One of the four hunter demons for the bow quest requires you to stay outside of 31 yards or he puts a nasty curse on you so you have to kite him halfway across Winterspring.

Hunters fall into two primary breeds: kiter/runners or jouster/tanks. Kiters learn to kite right from the start and love every second of it. Hal is apparently of that variety. Jousters like to run in, melee a mob, wing clip it and run away. When we pull aggro and FD resists, we throw up deterrance and aspect of the monkey and pray for heals and smack the damn mob in the face so he doesn't go after clothies. I am of the latter type. I tanked a bunch of trash in naxx tonight. I've gotten quite good at it.

Anyway, that demon was the bane of my existance because I'd never really learned to kite. But damn if it didn't teach me how. I don't often kite out of need, but I do it for fun fairly regularly.

So how exactly do you kite? Once a mob comes my way I never seem to be able to get away. Is the pet used to kite, or just the hunter. Also, any particular area were I can practice this skill (lvl 35)?

[Frosstbyte]

To kite effectively you need either to be able to increase your speed so you can move faster than the mob or you need to slow it down so your normal run speed is faster than its.

Hunters can do both. We can wing clip or concussive shot to slow the mob and we can aspect of the cheetah to increase our speed. Mages can frostbolt/blink kite with some success and warlocks can kite using curse of exhaustion to some extent. That being said, hunters are by far the most adept at kiting.

[seretogis]

P.S. WTS my 60 UD Mage, can be transferred anywhere. PM me. :P

[Pragma]

The way I learned how to kite was years of playing Quake/etc. with jump-shotting. Running along in a straight line, jump, spin the camera 180 degrees, shoot, spin back forwards, land, and keep running. It sounds a little complicated, but almost any FPS gamer should be able to instinctively pick up the mechanisms.

After that, the only thing you need to worry about is repeatedly hitting the mob every 8-10 seconds so that it doesn't deaggro - rank 1 distracting/arcane shot is pretty good for that as you can do it all day long and never run out of mana.

Whenever I kite, I hit aspect of the cheetah, stand at max range, and tend to open with an aimed/multi combo and then serpent sting -> start running away. From there, it's just a hideously long chase.

[Halx]

Kiting depends on the speed of the mob and its abilities.. if the mob runs too fast, it probably cant be kited. If it has ranged attacks, its probably a bad idea too. i basicly you're able to run forward while shooting your "shots" behind you if you strafe just right. What also works is running forward, jumping, turning, shooting, turning back and continuing on, but that is susceptible to graphic card lag that can get you killed. Use concussive shot to create distance if its catching up.

[Ch'i]

. . . . . . . . . . .

[Lasereth]

Twin Emps down to 25% on our second night of attempts. I think we'll kill them this Sunday since I'm gonna MT it (I respecced prot).

[YaWhateva]

Should I respec disc/holy. I am about to get 60 and am am Shadow/disc now. I know it would be good for raids which I want to do, but damnit I love shadow.

[snowy]

Originally Posted by YaWhateva

Should I respec disc/holy. I am about to get 60 and am am Shadow/disc now. I know it would be good for raids which I want to do, but damnit I love shadow.

Ask your guild.

[MahlerIsGod]

Does anyone have a firm date for the release of TBC? I havent heard anything from Bliz and I have seen at least 3 different dates from varying websites (Best Buy, IGN, Gamespot). Just wondering and thanks

[Pragma]

They're just now starting the closed beta (guildie got an invite), so I'd imagine probably mid to late November for the release. That'll give them enough time to do some testing while ensuring it's out before Christmas.

[Scorps]

Originally Posted by YaWhateva

Should I respec disc/holy. I am about to get 60 and am am Shadow/disc now. I know it would be good for raids which I want to do, but damnit I love shadow.

Not much use for a Shadow priest at lvl 60 unless your PvP only. You will have to be holy spec to survive a MC or BWL run

[MahlerIsGod]

We have one shadow priest in our guild (we just downed Patchwerk). We had so many priests (an odd situation, I know) that he specced shadow to DPS. He is the top caster dpser on most raids (he cant outdo rogues but then no one can). I could be wrong (as my priest toon is only 42) but you wont be a better healer if you respec you will simply be a more efficient.

[Frosstbyte]

I would say TBC will be a Thanksgiving release short of something unexpected going horribly wrong, in which case it'll be delayed until Q1 2007, though that'd be catastrophically bad for blizzard. There's not much left in the game at this point and there are no new content patches to carry people forward if TBC meets with serious delays. There's still plenty of testing to be done, but I'd think it's very safe to guess that the game is about 2 months out.

[YaWhateva]

ya I know I would be an efficient healer in disc/holy, but it seems to me that a raid could actually benefit from a shadow priest. Shadow Weaving will add 15% to all shadow damage (which would make locks happy) and the upcoming 41 point talent which gives 15% mana back to your party of shadow dmg you do seems like it would be helpful.

Bah, I will probably end up respeccing anyways.

[Pragma]

About 2/3 of the priests in my guild are shadow at the moment and it causes no end of trouble between them and the disc/holy priests. You'll be a much more efficient healer as disc/holy and so I'd spec to that and if your guild happens to have a surplus of healy-priests and doesn't mind you swapping back to shadow, go for it.

Our problem is that one of our priests decided he was going to go for Grand Marshal while raiding and so he specced shadow, and then about half of the priests decided "Well, if he can spec shadow and still raid, so can I" and it's just gotten messy. Still making progress through AQ40, it's just a massive pain to deal with them.

[Shauk]

Paladins got crusader strike, game over horde, game over.

muwahaha.

[MahlerIsGod]

Originally Posted by Shauk

Paladins got crusader strike, game over horde, game over.

muwahaha.

Ummmm...not to burst your bubble but The Horde get Pallys come Xpac

[YaWhateva]

so I hit 60 and respecced 21disc/30holy and so far I like it, except I miss Spirit Tap for soloing.

[Halx]

Anyone feel like discussing tank mechanics? I was just on a BWL run and I got sorta yelled at for letting the Elementium Threaded Cloak get DE'd when I run with an Overlord's Embrace from ZG.

The basics: ETC - 2% dodge, OE - 7 defense, 1% block

Here is my reasoning: As a non-protection warrior, it is hard for me to generate a lot of aggro, hence I need to generate a lot of rage. While the ETC is excellent for a protection warrior to completely avoid all damage on a swing, a non-protection warrior actually NEEDS to get hit. Simply put, if I dont get hit, I dont generate rage, I cant generate aggro, I cant tank. So, I want to get hit, but I want to mitigate the damage, not the hit all together.

This is why defense (reduced chance of getting crit, as well as small increases to dodge, parry) and block% (when an attack is blocked, it cannot crit or be a crushing blow) is favorable for a non-protection warrior.

Protection warriors are built for overall mitigation, because even if they totally avoid damage, their 5/5 defiance and 1-handed specialization will still allow them to grab a lot of hate and generate more rage because they are hitting harder.

[Pragma]

I wouldn't say it's the end of the world to let the cloak get DE'd, but it wouldn't (in my opinion) have been a bad idea to pick it up and keep it around in case you ever did happen to spec protect or wanted a good dodge cloak, especially since it's a rare drop. I think we've had one in four months? Zero shields off Chromaggus, and none of the Qiraji turnins for shields either, so our warriors are getting a little unhappy with ZG/MC loot for shields.

You're correct about the reasoning behind why non-protection warriors don't like dodge though, at least from everything I've read. Our non-protection tanks don't wear a lot of dodge if they can help it for exactly the same reasons as you listed.

[-Ever-]

Originally Posted by seretogis

P.S. WTS my 60 UD Mage, can be transferred anywhere. PM me. :P

That's sad

On a lighter note, I got an invite to the closed beta and have been playing the past day or so. Let me put it this way: It's going to knock your f'ing socks off

[YaWhateva]

so how do you get invited? is it just random or they select certain people?

[Frosstbyte]

Originally Posted by Halx

Anyone feel like discussing tank mechanics? I was just on a BWL run and I got sorta yelled at for letting the Elementium Threaded Cloak get DE'd when I run with an Overlord's Embrace from ZG.

ETC is a really lame cloak for anyone but a full prot warrior. Overlord's Embrace and Sandstorm Cloak are comparable (and they both look a lot better). If they really wanted you to take it, they should've given it to you for free and/or lowered the min, as I'd guess it's probably overpriced in your DKP system if you passed on it.

At this point, a guild like yours shouldn't be worrying about BWL loot. You're in Naxx. No one cares. Tanking mechanics aside, they're being silly. Don't worry about it and collect other epics.

[Lasereth]

The ETC is a great cloak. Dodge is the best tanking stat due to the fact that it completely mitigates the entire attack if dodged. It's not a super overpowered must-have cloak, but it is good, regardless of spec.

Warriors want damage mitigation regardless of their spec. Prot warriors want damage mitigation, non-prot warriors want damage mitigation. 1-Handed spec does not help with anything but offtanking, and while offtanking, damage mitigation doesn't matter while you're actually attacking, so it's a tanking paradox. When main tanking, you'll have enough rage to do whatever you want in any situation with any ability unless it's a heavy resist fight and your resists are too high (IE Ragnaros with 315 FR and 8k HP). Never, ever think that any type of warrior doesn't need mitigation for rage generation because even the most prot-deep warriors with the most mitigated damage still have plenty of rage. Not going for tanking/mitigation gear in the name of more rage simply doesn't work, no matter your spec.

I've tanked every boss in MC, every boss in ZG, AQ 20, BWL, up to C'Thun in AQ 40 and have been MS spec and Prot spec depending on the guild's need. I can say with 100% confidence that you'll never have a lack of rage unless you're OTing, and again, OTing doesn't actually involve you being hit until the OT's time comes, so the mitigation doesn't even impact the fight. Get that dodge up!!!!!!!

*EDIT* BTW I've tanked all of those bosses without a single point in defiance. Knowing your class > spec no matter what anyone says. Hal, do you have a macro that combines Heroic Strike and Sunder Armor? I know it's a dumb question, but many warriors brush the macro off like it's not needed even though it's the best tanking "ability" in the game.

Also, anyone have any thoughts on the new BC gear? The BC gear is pretty absurd. There's 1-handed craftable mace in BC (level 65 I believe) that's better than the Kel'Thuzad 1-hander. That's right, you can CHINA BUY a 1-hander crafted BoE in BC that is better than the Kel'Thuzad sword. Level 66 greens are better than ZG blues/entry MC epics. You can get grand marshal quality weapons through a level 65 quest reward. A breastplate drops off of a boss in Hellfire Citadel that, with sockets, is BETTER than the warrior breastplate off of C'thun. Hellfire Citadel can be 4-manned.

Why are we raiding? I feel like stopping raiding until BC comes out, especially anything but Naxx because it's just useless. Level 65 blues are better than BWL gear and can be obtained in 5-man instances. Why do a 40-man raid every week for gear that can be replaced in a 5-man come BC? I have full tier 2 and spent almost a year helping my guild put every instance up until AQ 40 on farm and now I'm finding out that my gear is gonna be obtainable in a 4-mannable level 64 dungeon. Is anyone else pissed about this? People are saying "stop whining, you raided for the experience, not the loot." Bullshit. I raided to help my guild and see us progress, but the other half of it was for the fucking badass loot that raiders got. My warrior has over 50 epics and now they're gonna be nexus crystals at 65. Why is Blizzard making BC have such hugely overpowered gear that is *easily* obtainable/buyable?

[Frosstbyte]

I'm a little frustrated by how quickly blizzard decided to outshine raid loot from WoW classic, but I suppose that's the name of the game. Gear inflation is not a new concept in MMOs and WoW has (in my opinion) been particularly bad about keeping it under control. This just goes along with that whole process.

My biggest complaint is what a waste of resources Naxx was/is. Being generous, there's probably going to be around 100 guilds who can kill KT by the time BC comes out, give or take. I don't know what BC holds in store, but Naxx is a stunning achievement of game design. It's cool, it's creepy, it's hard, it's beautiful. It is BY FAR the best thing blizzard did in all of WoW classic, particularly after the huge mess than was AQ40.

And the ridiculous vast majority of players will never see it. Hell, the vast majority of raiding players will never see it, forget all the people who don't raid to begin with. It's weird how resources get used to create something like this and then have it all disappear so fast. The crown jewel of WoW classic is a raid instance that almost no one (around 5000 people) will see through to completion and whose loot will be obsolete less than a month into the expansion.

GG blizz.

[Halx]

I find I have a big problem generating enough rage to sustain HS/sunder if my gear outmatches the mobs I'm tanking. If the mob is hitting me nicely, I can do whatever I want with it. Now I know the aggro game, I know the mechanics and I know how to tank, but the simple fact is - if I'm not getting hit, there is fuck all that I can do to generate hate fast enough to keep a mob off Naxx geared DPS.

[Lasereth]

Originally Posted by Frosstbyte

I'm a little frustrated by how quickly blizzard decided to outshine raid loot from WoW classic, but I suppose that's the name of the game. Gear inflation is not a new concept in MMOs and WoW has (in my opinion) been particularly bad about keeping it under control. This just goes along with that whole process.

My biggest complaint is what a waste of resources Naxx was/is. Being generous, there's probably going to be around 100 guilds who can kill KT by the time BC comes out, give or take. I don't know what BC holds in store, but Naxx is a stunning achievement of game design. It's cool, it's creepy, it's hard, it's beautiful. It is BY FAR the best thing blizzard did in all of WoW classic, particularly after the huge mess than was AQ40.

And the ridiculous vast majority of players will never see it. Hell, the vast majority of raiding players will never see it, forget all the people who don't raid to begin with. It's weird how resources get used to create something like this and then have it all disappear so fast. The crown jewel of WoW classic is a raid instance that almost no one (around 5000 people) will see through to completion and whose loot will be obsolete less than a month into the expansion.

GG blizz.

My thoughts EXACTLY. My guild is a semi-hardcore raiding guild (we're on C'thun) and we've only been into Naxx once (Razuvious). BC is coming out so soon after Naxx has been conquered that we simply don't have enough time to do it. Naxx gear is being replaced in BC fairly quickly. There is literally no reason to do MC, BWL, AQ 40, or Naxxramas after BC comes out, and Blizzard has caused the problem directly. WoW has had pretty understandable gear inflation so far. I wouldn't even say there's anything wrong with it. Naxxramas is hard as hell, and the gear you get is good from it. But BC is different...BC has basically scooped up all the gear from 40-man raid instances and put it through a meat grinder, laughing the whole time. I just saw screenshots of CRAFTABLE 525 max damage 2-handers and 310 max damage 1-handers. No raiding required. Jesus.............

Originally Posted by Halx

I find I have a big problem generating enough rage to sustain HS/sunder if my gear outmatches the mobs I'm tanking. If the mob is hitting me nicely, I can do whatever I want with it. Now I know the aggro game, I know the mechanics and I know how to tank, but the simple fact is - if I'm not getting hit, there is fuck all that I can do to generate hate fast enough to keep a mob off Naxx geared DPS.

Can you elaborate? I'd like to know what you're tanking. I've never had a problem holding aggro as MS spec, but half of holding aggro is your part and half is the DPS...if rogues or hunters pull aggro, it's 100% their fault considering they have 100% threat dumps.

[Halx]

It doesn't really matter what I'm tanking, if the DPS has itchy fingers and I dodge/parry 3 swings in a row, I'm running around chasing the mob down. I don't necessarily consider it their fault for pulling aggro.. its usually only trash, but it doesn't reflect well on me for letting a mob run away.

So this guild I've been running with has been working on Heigan the Unclean for the last few raids. We got him down to 39% on our best attempt. Its a real fun fight, but the whole concept of 'dancing' seems to be lost on a lot of people. Half the raid is dead after the first dance. We tell people to learn the cracks in the floor to know exactly where to be and where to run to, but people still seem to get their asses worked. I'm glad I wasn't the dead weight 'cause I was up there DPSing until the end.

Thaddius is the same kinda fight... its kinda cool to think that you can get 40 people on the same page with the same reflexes. Well, right now wer have about 7, but hopefully that increases soon.

[Lasereth]

Those fights that require moving are gonna be my guild's downfall. We have too many players in the guild who know their class and are good at healing and DPSing, but suck at playing WoW in general because they're just not fast. We even have a few full tier 2 players who don't strafe and never will strafe. They turn around 180 degrees with their arrow keys before moving.

[Frosstbyte]

Turning with arrow keys instead of strafing makes me cry. Seriously. That's really really bad.

Heigan is one of those fights where you just have to wipe a lot as people learn to DDR. I think it took us about 3 nights. First there were 5 people, then 10 or 15, then when we got about 20 people staying up for most of the fight is when we started killing him. As long as the MT, a few good healers, a cleanser and several good DPS can keep themselves up, you can kill him, as he has dick all for HP (1.6M or so). After a month or so of farming him, we're finally getting 30+ to survive to the end, but it's been a long process. One of my guildmates on a 1% wipe where he was the only person up on the dance made a video showing all the splash zones and where to run. I'd be happy to host it if you'd like.

When done right, movement fights are really the coolest-looking and most fun fights in the game, in my opinion. The first time we downed Thaddius I remember being amazed at how cool it looked to have waves of people moving back and forth. Heigan has always been one of my favorite fights in the zone, too. The eyestalk port tube is really the only poorly designed part of the encounter, but I quite enjoy the dancing aspect of the fight.

[Scorps]

I just gotta share this with everyone, Its a week late but are guild has finally taken down Chromaggus





hes Next:

nevermind the Warrior sitting next to him.



Oh and this Sword dropped off Chromaggus:

[Frosstbyte]

Congrats on getting the big dragondog down. He's a pain in the butt, and congrats to the rogue who picked up CTS. He'll be using it for a good long time. Those are amazingly good loots from Chrom, as his loot table has some of the best items in the zone and also has some of the worst.

Also, since you mentioned it in raid chat, the model for Sword of 1000 Truths is actually the same model as The Hungering Cold, which you can see here: http://www.thottbot.com/?i=53954

[Lasereth]

Our guild has killed Chromaggus every week since...like May? And we haven't had a single CTS drop. Lucky bastards.

[boom29]

So I've tried kiting a little with limited success. I was able to get the guy to follow me, except that I wasn't paying attention to where I was taking him and just aggroed a bunch of beasts causing me to have to run away. Is there a particular area that is good for kiting and/or learning to kite?

Also, as I level up and get more abilities/powers with my Hunter, how should I organize my action bars? Even though I'm lvl 37 at the moment, I still feel rather inexperienced when it comes to things like that. I have a routine that I go through when in combat, but I guess I just don't know if it's effecient/effective.

Lastly, is there any particular macro that is useful for a hunter?

Those are some nice screenshots...I hope to someday get to kill a boss like that.

[Halx]

for my hunter, this is my favorite macro:

/script PetAttack();CastSpellByName("Auto Shot");
/cast Hunter's Mark

It does 3 things all at once: Sends pet, starts auto shot, and marks the mob. Its literally the only button you need to press.

As far as kiting goes, if kiting is your only option, you can probably afford to skip it. I've managed to level my hunter up super duper fast, doing as many quests as I can possibly do, and if the quest is too hard (ie, is elite) I usually just pass it up for a non-elite grinding quest.

When you get to lvl 45 or around there be sure to try and solo the Stranglethorn Fever quest. Its a good test of personal ability 'cause you get zerged and you have to really manage you and your pet nicely.

[boom29]

Originally Posted by Halx

for my hunter, this is my favorite macro:

/script PetAttack();CastSpellByName("Auto Shot");
/cast Hunter's Mark

It does 3 things all at once: Sends pet, starts auto shot, and marks the mob. Its literally the only button you need to press.

Is there any advantage of starting off with auto shot, instead of an aimed shot? Since the aimed shot takes a while, that is the time I prefer to use it; afterwards, I usually let the auto shot go 2/3 times before I do a multi-shot or so.