Reflections From The Pond

Posts Tagged ‘gear’

Cuddling, the Draenei hunter with the most beautiful pet in the world, is growing and recently she finished off a quest in Borean Tundra which awarded her a Gun!

Now, Cuddling is not a fan of guns really because of the loud sound they make, scaring every prey within a kilometer off once she presses that trigger. No, much to the annoyance of the resident hunters of her guild, she’ll take a silent deadly bow or possibly crossbow over a gun any day.

But this was a blue gun, and she was toting an old green crossbow which she had found lying in a ditch somewhere in Outland, so she set her doubts aside and woved to get a silencer asap, donned a pair of ear protectors, grabbed the gun from Thassarian’s clutches and threw her old crossbow out.

Only to find out that her Gun skill was the amazing 1/360.

So what’s a girl to do?

Well, she travelled to Ironforge, entered the Deeprun Tram and set about to single-handedly exterminate the entire rat population there.

Armed with her gun and cheap bullets she made a macro to speed up her shoot-out:

/target Deeprun Rat
/cast Autoattack

And the shooting started. As the rat kills numbered in tens and then hundreds, passengers arriving or leaving on the Tram had to detour around the rat corpses piling up, and some even stopped to admire her dedication to keep the rat infestation of the Deeprun Tram at bay, or possibly question her sanity.

“You really have a problem with rats, don’t you?”

It didn’t take her long to kill the 400+ rats needed to max her gun skill, and get a few Sword skillups as well from a ferocious rat or two coming to close.

But it is a bit too noisy for her liking, and she will keep her eyes out for a new bow or crossbow.

I got a Purple Ribboned Holiday Gift in the mail some days ago, seems a guildie of mine had been overcome by the Winter Veil spirits, or had possibly drunk too much of it, and had sent all his guildies a gift!

Upon opening it, I found it contained a Club!

To me, this is the essence of Club-ness.

It is a piece of sturdy plank, considerately wrapped with cloth at the handle end so the wielder won’t get any splinters in her tender hand when whacking it around, and – like an afterthought – a huge nail is hammered through the bad end of it for extra efficiency.

This is a club made for one purpose – to hit people and to make sure they stay hit.

It is what I have always wanted! :-D

Do you ever get the feeling when you open your closet door and look at all your clothes stuffed in there that you have nothing to wear? Or when you are out shopping that you find nothing at all you would like to wear – a whole bloody city full of nothing but bloody clothes boutiques and there is not one bloody piece of garb that you find interesting enough to buy?

Happens to me a lot. My clothes – the ones I do manage to buy – are nice, good-looking and comfortable, yet when I stand there in my dressing room in my underwear looking at them I often find nothing in there I really want to put on, and I generally hate going shopping. Total outfit paralysis.

Usually ends up with me grabbing something I know I will find comfortable wearing, which explains why I am always dressed the same and the hot little dresses I for some reason keeps buying usually languishes away at the back of the closet.

It’s like that for me in WoW as well sometimes.

My shammy has her bags crammed full of shiny gear and yet she usually wears the same stuff. She has a lot of jewellery but same thing applies here, she usually wears the same necklace and rings.

She is now standing before the Triumphant Vendor with some brand new Crusade Trophys burning in her purse and she has total outfit paralysis.

I was going to replace her helm and shoulders since they are ilvl 232, but Elitist Jerks with their Best in Slot list seems to find that the Elemental helm and shoulders of the t9 are actually much better for a resto shaman than the resto ones, while looking a bit further ahead it seems the Resto head and shoulders of the t10 is the ones to go for and EJ suggest wearing the tunic and the gloves of the t9.

So what should I get? I don’t want to spend a lot of gems and enchants on gear I will replace real soon, and I don’t want to miss out on the t9 2-set bonus. And I don’t want to spend too much dkp on buying the t9 tokens now that the t10 marks are in stock. So t9 ilvl 245 helm and shoulders? Tunic and gloves? I already have very nive ilvl 245 tunic and gloves  (althought not tier stuff) and which gear will actually last me the longest if I should lose the set bonus?

And – most importantly – will I look fat in it?

Ze warlock has similar problems.

She has gathered up a nice bunch of Triumph emblems but there is actually nothing in the shop she wants to wear. Or rather, she is very attached to her current gear since it is things that has dropped for her in raids with her friends and it has a lot of sentimental value to her. Nothing like winning a roll and picking up a lovely silk dress from the innards of a dead mob to form a real bond with your gear.

Also, the fact that the Iceshear mantle and Raiments of the Corrupted looks absolutely hawt on a dark-haired green-eyed gnome while the t9 looks, well, let’s just say that sloping shoulders starting at your ears does not look good on anyone, this fact does not make her very inclined to buy them.

The t9 set bonus, the increased damage of her pets, is very alluring though since she is a real warlock and a real warlock uses pets, so I guess she will eventually overcome her dithering and buy the legs and gloves.

Anyways, who said it was easy to gear up with this new badge system?!?

I have read about people Needing on the Frozen Orbs in the random dungeon running, and I think I may have encountered it a few times myself.

Not that I keep track actually, it’s not like a Frozen Orb or the gold I will get from AH’ing it will make or break me, so I always Greed them myself and I don’t get upset or pissed at people Needing them, not even mildly annoyed, I just find it curious that some people really don’t mind looking like needy bastards.

And today I encountered a couple of players who took the “looking like needy bastards” to a slightly higher level.

It was a paladin and a DK, and they Needed on everything they could, ie every piece of plate that dropped.

First time I saw the paladin getting loot after a Need roll, I congratulated him, thinking it was for offspec, but after the third plate drop from a boss when they both rolled Need I had to ask.

“Why do you need all this stuff? Surely you have better gear?”

One of them answered coldy “offspec” but the other one was more up front:

“I am a fekking ninja.”

Fair enough, I wasn’t that bothered and I wasn’t gonna throw a fit in the run but it still amused me a little.

These people have obviously found a way to maximize their profit from every single run and really don’t care what other people think about them. It is just another variety of the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory.

And I don’t care, like with the Frozen Orbs the plate gear I didn’t win with my Greed rolls will not make or break me.

It is interesting though how different people are, I don’t think I could ever bring myself to Need on something I didn’t need as an upgrade for my gear, in any spec. And if it would have been an offspec upgrade, I don’t think I could have Needed unless nobody else Needed for mainspec. Not even in groups like this, with people I most likely will never see again.

I guess Needers like the paladin and the DK think I am a loser for not maximizing my profits like they do.

I think differently.

Or maybe more accurately, A Few Question Of Haste.

You know, like, What is haste? Why do I need it? Where do I get it from? and Can I have too much of it?

The first time I ever heard of haste on WoW gear (then separated into [melee] haste and spell haste) was when Zul’Aman was launched back in November 2007.

I didn’t get that many items with haste on any of my chars, and it was never really a stat I aimed for.

Fast forward to 2009 and Northrend, where every single item that drops seems to have haste on it. My lvl 80 girls, ze warlock Paynne is packing 130 haste rating and ze shammy Larue a whooping 268 haste rating.

So, adding a few more questions, is that a lot? Is it enough or is it maybe too much? And is haste rating the same thing as haste?

I figured it was about time I caught up with everyone else in the haste department. (And since none of my melee girls are lvl 80 yet I will avoid fatal brain overload and focus on the spell variety of haste.)

Starting off with the easy question; Is haste rating the same thing as haste?

Short answer: No.

Slightly longer answer:  Haste is measured in %, whereas haste rating is a number. At lvl 80, you need 33 haste rating to gain 1 % haste.

Onwards to the not-so-easy question then. According to wowwiki, haste affects the casting time of spells in 3 different ways:

- It reduces the general global cooldown (GCD) down to a mimimum of 1 second instead of the original 1,5 seconds.

- It reduces the time spent casting.

- It reduces the time before the cast spell takes effect.

Now, before you go wohoo! and start stacking haste rating to get that annoying GCD down to 1 second, let me inform you that it will require 50 % haste at lvl 80, or 1640 haste rating. Not likely to be achieved by ordinary players like me.

Faster casts are always welcome, right? The 2,5 seconds cast of a talented Shadow Bolt or Chain Heal feels like an eternity sometimes, and anything that could reduce those neverending casts are definitely worth looking at.

I am not quite sure what the third haste effect actually means, wowwiki only refers to it as being useful when duelling or when needing quick sporadic heals.

A quick browsing of dah intareweb and known resources such as Elitist Jerks doesn’t bring up anything useful to me since the mechanics for this haste stat has been changed since it was introduced and a lot of the information is outdated.

I am guessing it might mean that the initial tick of a dot or hot is applied faster with increased haste, but don’t take my word for it.

Where do I get haste rating then? Well, like I said, a lot of the gear (and I mean A LOT!) in Northrend comes with haste, it’s rather more difficult to find pieces without haste than with it, actually.

If you feel you don’t have enough as it is you can always gem for it or slap on some enchant or other.

I saved the most interesting question for last, how much haste is enough/too much?

Well, the usefulness of haste is obvious, but like every other stat, stacking it means you sacrifice something else.  

In fights where you switch targets a lot or need many fast smaller heals or dispells haste is a good stat.

In fights that let you focus on the same target for longer periods of time or where you need to heal up large spiked damage fast, spell power or crit would be a better choice.

So, for the time being, I am not going to excert myself stacking a lot of haste.

As I gather more gear I might want to work on getting two sets, one haste set and one spell power/crit set, but for now I will try to keep a balance more suited to my all-round playstyle.

Yes!! Finally there is a working WoW Model Viewer that also includes Northrend gear!

And they have even managed to fix some of what was broken in the old one – the cool tribal-looking Robes of Heavenly Purpose that Jools is still running around in were never displayed properly before, the sleeves were skin-coloured and the skirt was always taking on the legs colours and patterns. But look at it now!

Also the skins for the Northrend gear has a much more coordinated and matched look than the gear from Outland – no more looking like a K-mart escapee! Paynne is wearing a mix of dungeon drops and quest rewards, and see how well-dressed she looks.

Larue’s wearing some nice drops from Naxx and some heroic drops, and even though some of it’s mail and some is *cough* cloth *cough* it still is matching very well!

Only one real and consistent disappointment so far – all caster hats are fugly! Horribly-looking cloth hoods or mail hats that consists of leather strips and scrap metal and looks like something from a medieval torture chamber! Would not be seen dead in any of those, so thank Elune its still an option to NOT display your helm :-)

This here is Jools in her current healing gear, wearing the Gladiator’s Mooncloth Robe and Mantle, complete with Teardrop Living Rubies in all sockets, a +15 spirit enchant on the chest and a Greater Inscription of the Oracle on the shoulders.

Its ok gear, but I do not like the look of it. It looks like some crummy old khaki desert uniform from two centuries ago with blingblings and epaulets and stuff, and it does definitely not set of Jools’ blue braid and bluish complexion ;P

So I am working on getting her something new to wear, and with my usual luck in drop rolls I ‘d better aim for something thats not totally dependent on having the gods of fate smile upon me.

The Robes of Heavenly Purpose that drops from Nalorakk in Zul’Aman looks cool, but I do not know when I’ll get there. I have never even once seen the Masquerade Gown drop in Karazhan, and the Gown of Spiritual Wonder is shit ugly (and I’d rather spend my badges on the Gavel of Naaru Blessings anyways).

So what else is there?

As you all probably know, Season 2 Arena gear will be available for honor points when Season 4 goes live, and the Merciless Gladiator’s Mooncloth Robe really looks hot.

Worn with the Pauldrons of the Solace-giver that the big ugly Curator dropped for her on her last Karazhan run its a really stunning outfit.

If the prices for the S2 gear follow the S1 ones, the Merciless robe will be available for 30 Arathi Basin marks and about 14 500 honor points.

If gemmed and enchanted like before, this new pretty outfit will net her about +15 mana/5 (in combat), but she will lose about 9 healing (since the shoulders dont have any gem slots) and a whooping 34 stamina.

Well, I like mp5, and Jools is less than a dozen badges shy of the Gavel of Naaru Blessings, which would help alleviate that stamina loss, so I guess I can justify choosing looking-good over somewhat better stats.

However, the belt she is wearing is the Nethershard Girdle, and the Guardian’s Mooncloth Belt will also be for sale for AB marks, 40 to be precise, and 17 850 honor points.

Replacing the Nethershard with the Guardian belt will give her back the lost 34 stamina, and also increase her healing with about 47, while she loses 2 mp5.

So what I’m reluctantly beginning to realise is, that I’d better start doing those AB matches real fast, cause I am going to need 60 AB marks and 32 250 honor points til tomorrow!

I am sometimes told I have a low heal bonus. Well, it’s really not that much to brag about, only a little over 1500 or so, which compared to the many +2k healers in my guild is pretty low. I do my best to increase it though, I run heroics for loot and badges, I do bg’s to get some of the good pvp healing gear, I do the dailies for gold and rep to get me some of the sweet rep rewards.

I have a wish list of Karazhan drops that would be nice upgrades for my healing outfit:
Red Riding Hood’s Cloak
Blue Diamond Witch-Wand
Ribbon of Sacrifice
Masquerade Gown
Hnadwraps of the Incarnate
Pauldrons of the Solace-Giver

All of the above may drop in the first parts of Karazhan up to the Curator. The bosses of the upper part of Kara also has a lot of nice drops but usually we don’t go further than the Curator in one go.

So last night I signed up for the scheduled Karazhan run, hoping for a chance to snag some of the nice healing drops in there, and get a few more badges so I can buy my very first piece of shiny stuff from that greedy smith Hauthaa.

However, I did not get invited to the run :-(

Well, that’s ok, there were a lot of people that had signed up and wanted to go, I do not expect to get to raid every time I feel like it.

But then I take a look at who is going, and I see three healers that are fully decked out in high-level epics, all badge geared and with heal bonuses way over 2 k. None of them need even a single drop from Kara and if anything of the above dropped it would probably be disenchanted or go to some hybrid class’s offspec.

Naturally I felt a little disappointed, thinking that why the heck do these people go for Kara runs when there are other players out there who would seem to benefit more from it, but I guess the guild management had done some planning and in their infinite wisdom come to the conclusion that for this run it was actually better to bring healers who didn’t need any drops and let the less-geared who could benefit from drops sit it out.

Anyways, with my usual luck regarding drops and rolls, probably none of the things on my wish list would have dropped for me had I been in there.

And if I don’t get into the guild Kara badge farm runs I can always go pugging since it seems that is allowed now, hoping for some better luck in drops there :-)

You know what a pug is, right? Pick-up-group, a group consisting of people not all from the same guild or circle of friends, a group of people most of whom you don’t know.

Pugging 5-mans happens all the time, but raid pugging is a little more delicate. Most serious guilds don’t allow their members to go pugging raids, since that means those guildies won’t be available for guild raids to that particular raid instance that week or until it resets.

A guildie of mine went pugging a Gruul’s Lair run the other day. No big deal, I would say, it’s not like my guild has done any 25-man raids for weeks, and no raid to the Lair is on the GroupCalendar for the upcoming week. It was reset the day after anyways, so even if any spontaneous Gruul runs should arise my guildie would be able to join.

What might make this a little delicate though is that apparently pugging raids have been a definite no-no, even grounds enough for a gkick, and this was an officer who was doing the pugging. I do not know if the rules have been changed recently, but its a sure-fire way to stir up guild drama by having different rules for members and officers.

My opinion only, but I think that the title of officer is associated with certain obligations as well as privileges. If you call yourself a raiding guild, the grunts of the guild expects the officers to arrange raids.

If you pug raids as an officer, you risk signalling to the rest of the guild that you are unable or unwilling to arrange these raids for the guild, because obviously you want to go there since you did, but you are not wanting it enough to make it happen for the guild, or even worse, that you really just care about the chance to get phat lewt, but you carry the guild tag with you wherever you go.

In this case, I am sure nothing of the above was intended, it was just a chance to have fun in the middle of the night after a bad guild progress run in another raid instance. Still, it sends out the wrong signals, and I think it was a rather bad call.

Last year, in the summer of 2007, we had barely started doing Karazhan on our own and had trouble getting enough people online at the same time to make the raids happen. A trial member in our guild arranged some pug runs to Kara with some of his friends from other guilds and invited some of the guild members who went along with it. I was asked to come, and hesitantly agreed, but after they found out my druid was feral and not resto I was not wanted anymore.

Just as good, actually, because at that time I was an officer in the guild and it would have felt wrong to go on pug runs in Kara when not all of our members who wanted to go were welcome. It would have felt disloyal to my guild, I was an officer and expected to make raids happen within the guild, not go outside it for raiding.

Normal members have more freedom in that aspect, but if the people in charge of the guild go off doing raids in pugs, I can’t help but feel a little let down by them. I don’t want the privileges and responsibilities of being a guild officer, that’s why I left that post, but if you want it I think you’d better be prepared that its not all raindrops and roses and whiskers on kittens, its a good deal of hard work and drudgery in there too.

But ah well, I don’t make the rules and I don’t enforce them, I keep my opinions to myself mostly since I don’t want to get involved (except I write them here to get any lingering feelings of ill-ease off my chest), and I smile and move along :-)

This sweet little trinket dropped for me in a heroic Magister’s Terrace run, and I promptly replaced the Oshu’gun Relic I have been dragging around for so long. Odd thing about it though, its called Vial of the Sunwell but it shows up in the combat log as Vessel of the Naaru.

But on second thoughts, is it really such an imba trinket?

Equip: Collects 100 Holy Energy from healing spells you cast. Cannot collect more than 2000 Holy Energy.

Every healing spell I cast adds to the stack, up to a total of 20. However, Holy Nova and the Frisbee do not add to the stack (guess they are for some reason not counted as healing spells…)

The stack seems to be everlasting as long as you don’t use the trinket. I have had a stack up and logged out for the night, with the same stack up when I logged in the next day.

Also, the charges stay up even if you unequip the trinket, and when re-equipped it retains the stack.

Use: Release all accumulated Holy Energy to instantly heal current friendly target by the amount of Holy Energy accumulated. (2 Min Cooldown)

This is a nice feature, it is an instant spell that is NOT affected by the global cooldown, and you can thus allegedly use it while silenced too. I have not tried his yet but will do as soon as possible.

According to the tooltip (100 Holy Energy per charge) it should be 2000 heal per use, but if I trigger a full stack it heals for 2200 and 3300 if it crits, so it seems the talent Spiritual Healing affects it.

Also, the 2 minute cd is about long enough for a full recharge, so by the time the cd is up it will have a full new 20 stack waiting to be released.

Equip: Restores 15 mana per 5 sec.

Ah, sweet, thank you, more mana is always welcome! :-)

I think the key question to consider about this trinket is when to use it. Save it for an emergency heal, or use is as soon as the cd is up?

If it is possible to use through stuns and silences, like the Time Stop of Aeonus in the Black Morass [Edit: Can't use during the Time Stop, its a stun and not a silence] and the Deafening Roar of Nalorakk, then I would definitely make sure that it was ready for use when that happens.

On other fights, I think its better to use it as soon as the cd is up, otherwise other trinkets might be of better use.

I don’t have that many trinkets to choose from, and since I am a stickler for mana regen I will keep the Vial equipped along my Talasite Owl, which I will replace with a Seaspray Albatross as soon as I can get my hands on some Seaspray Emeralds without having to dig too deep into my pocket.