Shields Up!

What’s new?

1. I finally got a job. This will significantly reduce the time I can invest in the game and updating the blog. This isn’t bad though. I’ll try deliver more quality post, which really should answer any questions a resto shaman could have. Tankingtips.com is an excellent example of a quality blog, which doesn’t need a new post every 1-2 days to be of interest. I’ll have to be realistic though, even if quality before quantity is the goal, I can almost guarantee some future rants/fun posts.

2. My paladin got to level 80 in a big effort of power leveling. Paladin Healing is better than I thought. I like to pace of healing, I like the small but strong arsenal of healing spells, which isn’t that different from shaman healing. Holy Beacon, Flash of Light HoT and Sacred Shield also offer a nice number of buffs you’ll have to watch closely as a healer. Healing a Tank through The Beacon is really awesome once you get used to it. Especially if tanks run out of your heal range and you can still heal them through another party member.

Paladin tanking was pretty much what I expected: Incredible AoE DPS/Threat but a slightly monotonous 696 rotation. It isn’t as boring as druid tanking, but far from the fun I have while I enjoy the mobility/gadgets/snappy snap aggro of my warrior tank. If only prot warriors would do halfway decent DPS. read more…

If you aren’t wearing two pieces of T10 yet, I’m going to spell out this beautiful bonus for you:

(2) Set: Your Riptide spell grants 20% spell haste for your next spellcast within 10 sec.

Just think about how great this is. You cast one Riptide and your next spell is going to get 20% spell haste. Riptide has a 6 sec CD, so you can proc this buff called Rapid Currents very often, every 6 seconds that is. 20% spell haste brings my CH unbuffed from 1.9 down to 1.6. Impressive, isn’t it? This Tier bonus is great because of two things: 1. It has a high value in terms of HEP and 2. it brings an additional layer of depth into shaman healing.

Let’s talk about the HEP thing first: stassart has included the Bonus in his great shaman_hep program. I ran this with a log from a Rotface kill and some 10 Putricide attempts. That’s the results I got for my Tier bonuses: read more…

Yesterday was the first raiding night with a total of 7 Icecrown Citadel encounters. So after Saurfang gave up his spot in front of the door, we finally got to see some new content.

Our pick of the evening was Rotface. We got him down to something around 30%. I won’t link to any tactics. Google is your friend. Hell I surely won’t write up any tactics myself, not now, not after we kill the guy. Especially since Vixsin is doing a great job at writing up shaman centric boss tactics.

The only thing I’m going to do is list some observations. Some related to raiding in general, some related to killing Rotface: read more…

I love Lyn’s new UI, version 8. You can get his UI layout, coded for oUF here. I tried to mimic his layout with Stuf Unit Frames, this doesn’t look as slick as an oUF layout, but I’m just so much faster tweaking a Stuf layout than editing .lua. I’m really happy with how this looks, so I guess I’ll update this post from time to time.

Absolutely all credits for the idea go to Lyn.

Download on Filefront.

Before you change anything, backup your WoW settings!

Raid screenshot

read more…

I know, it’s been rather quiet on this site. The holidays are a good opportunity to step back from the game though, enjoy some RL stuff or just relax in-game. So don’t expect any big updates on this site in the next few days.

In WoW, I’ve spent my raid-free time with leveling a warlock on my girlfriend’s account. I just couldn’t bring myself to start an own lock at level 1. So I’m currently at lvl 75, enjoying SL/FG leveling. At the same time I’m still tweaking my UI. I ditched the pixel font from my last WIP, this just didn’t work out for my eyes. I then tried to get an old-school Lyn-look, this UI compilation textures/fonts bring back so many good memories.

WIP with Lyn textures

While working on this layout I was amazed to find out, that Lyn updated his latest UI layout here. I wasn’t all to happy with the functionality of the oUF layout though, so I adapted the looks into Stuf. Also, I went from Filger to rFilter2, Filger somehow doesn’t track debuffs correctly in my case. I’m quite happy with the result so far. read more…

Two Screenshots will sum up what I’ve been up to in the last few days: getting my Tier shoulders and working on my UI. The UI is a mix-up of ouf_tewl, Quse UI and pHishr’s UI.

early Christmas

temporary WIP

Did you get any new shiny loot? Any new good addons/UI compilations I should know about?

Update 18.12.: Screenshot of WIP at the bottom of the post. Maybe I’ll upload a second version of the UI somewhen in the future.

A lot of people ask me about Addons/UI/Settings uploads. I just don’t have time to Upload all kind of things and answer questions regarding an UI, which inevitably comes with an UI Upload.

Anyways, Quse UI hasn’t been updated for 3.3, so I’ll upload my personal fix to the UI including my Grid configuration. If you don’t know how to get an UI compilation running, don’t download. Don’t mess around with your folders without a backup! Don’t overwrite all your macros. I included them anyway in case you’re curious.

Download on Filefront

Screenshot:

read more…

I’ll list some good Resto loot out of the new 5 man instances. This should help you gear up your shaman if you’re often doing Heroics, but 10 man raids are your goal. This means: I’ll rate  haste as a very good stat, but not as good as for a full time raider. I’ll also try to help you decide between gear from Emblem of Triumph and loot from the new heroics. Your goal should be the 2pcT9 Bonus. The 4pc Bonus isn’t necessary, especially if your main Focus is 5 and 10 mans. The best choices for T9 resto: Chestpiece and Gloves.

On with the list, slot by slot:

Helm:

Helm of the Spirit Shock (FoS Heroic) is a fantastic Resto and Elemental piece. I’d take it over Nobundo’s Headpiece of Conquest, the regular T9 helm, any day. I’d even consider the 245 Emblem of Triumph Helm, Helm of Inner Warmth, only a very very minor upgrade over this piece. Save your 75 Emblems, this helm is really all you need. I also think it’s pretty decent looking. The helm is clearly better than Conqueror’s Worldbreaker Headpiece, if you like 2pcT8, you can stick with your T8 pieces. I’d recommend wearing the helm as soon as you get it though. If you get Polished Mirror Helm (PoS Normal), you get a decent starter helm, not as good as the T8 helm though.

Neck:

Arcane Loops of Anger (FoS Heroic) is already the second mp5 free piece. The only downside to this piece: Caster DPS might be interested as well. Love’s Prisoner (FoS Heroic) is nearly as good, mp5 could be helpful considered how much haste you’ll get through the new instances. read more…

1. Icecrown Citadel looks very cool. It’s exactly the design I like in Warcraft: cold, undead, frost wyrm-y and evil. I think Ulduar was a great instance, but the whole Colossus design wasn’t my cup of tea.
   

   It feels like raiding again...

2. The first two bosses of ICC were recycling of  bosses we’ve already seen. I can’t say though I didn’t like it or wouldn’t look forward to the heroic modes.
3. The new LFG tool is excellent. As damage dealer you’ll have some waiting time, but as tank or healer it’s a guaranteed instant group. Also, I like the cross server grouping. All random groups were very nice and polite.
4. The new heroic instances are pretty decent. Sadly, because I dragged most of my alts through ToC10, I can’t really farm them for upgrades. I absolutely love the pace of the instances though, the boss fights are gorgeous and the instance is in fact a challenge for random groups (and for my as a tank).
5. The Quel’Delar questline is lovely. Hammer of Purified Flame is mine, MINE!
6. Blizzard likes the combination of fireworks and bear butts.
   

   Don't try this at home, kids!

Tell me about your first moments in 3.3.