World of Warcraft XIII: Even Aspects Get Nerfed

[Dublock]

Having a mage as a main...

Arcane is easy to learn, hard to master. I suspect most people can get talents/glyphs/etc right and be able to pull decent numbers but to pull top of the raid type numbers you need to learn it.

Practice makes perfect and dps is one of those things if you want to do well.

[Bunny of Faith]

Spoiler

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I'm a bit surprised that you can do more DPS in Blood (unless your DPS gear happens to be extremely poor, which is understandable since most people's off-spec gear is worse). Even if you just hit your Howling Blast, Frost Strike, and Obliterate buttons completely randomly every second, you can easily attain more DPS than Blood (some say Frost is a bit like whack-a-mole and I do of agree to the sentiment to some extent). Aside from min-maxing, DPSing is not actually any more difficult than tanking, but it requires a completely different mindset (push the right buttons in the right order). It is difficult (and subject to randomness) at first, but that's the case for everyone.

Personal example: I leveled as Blood all my way to 80, and have never played Frost before at all (played a little bit of Unholy back in Wrath but that was extremely rare). When I leveled to 85 I chose to do something different and level as Frost instead (leveling as Blood trivializes everything and makes questing very boring). I had no clue how to play Frost either. So I referred to the Frost DPS sticky on Elitist Jerks and read up on the priorities -- it seemed quite complex so I had to study that list for a while. But after months of practice, I was able to DPS competently as Frost. You could say I'm "fluent" in the rotation. It's much like playing a new instrument or learning a new language -- be patient and practice, and practice hard until it becomes second nature to you.

Long story short, with enough practice you will find that learning to play a DPS rotation is not at all difficult, just takes patience and trial and error. I suggest you should try working on it a bit on the testing dummies or in dungeons.

As for alternatives, although Frost is one of the simpler specs, Combat & Arcane are both extremely simple too if you're willing to play a Rogue or Mage. My experience with Combat is that it has very low randomness, and high tolerance for error, with only two easy-to-use damage cooldowns. The downside is that Combat is very "spammy" (quite possibly the worst offender in the Carpal Tunnel department) and you need to keep hitting Sinister Strike continuously in order to maximize DPS -- so while it is very easy to pull high numbers it tends to wear your hands quickly. I do not have much experience with Arcane -- I consider it slightly more difficult than Combat due to mana management and (lack of) mobility but it is also relatively easy to pull decent numbers. Elemental is a relatively simple spec so learning it should not be too difficult either.

I can reiterate what Expf says about frost being really simple, as it's what I raid as - unless you're going into heroic raids you can probably get by with just Spamming obliterate, clicking rime when it procs, and using frost strike when at least 2 runes of the same type are on cooldown for a rotation(Also mash pillar of frost on cooldown). Beyond that, combat, elemental and arcane are all simple DPS specs with very little randomness.

[MechaKingGhidra]

Well, I suppose in the end I may just be, like every other darn thing, overthinking it and believing I have to be doing *something* at all times in tune to some sort of rythym, if you will.

My mage (different server) shall remain fire, however, as arcane annoys the heck out of me. My elemental shaman feels like a good transition as far as a caster class is concerned, and I shall try yet again to get more practice as...eh, probably frost.

Still, if it doesn't work out, not too sure how well our range-heavy will work out should I make the shaman my main.

Oh well, thank you for the input and away I go!

*trips and impales himself upon his weapon*

[The Linker]

As a Feral Druid, I have plenty of moments where I have no energy to do anything, or it's otherwise in my advantage to hold off for a few seconds.

I've noticed I tend to fill this period with random jumping, or moving forward and backwards repeatedly. I really just can't stand still. Watch any of my kill videos and that's what I do with my hands to fill the space, to the point where someone once commented to tell me to stop.

[Expf]

Still, if it doesn't work out, not too sure how well our range-heavy will work out should I make the shaman my main.

I don't see what's the problem with being ranged-heavy. Our raid is extremely melee heavy and that tends to hinder us on some fights, but being ranged-heavy is like a blessing IMO.

I've noticed I tend to fill this period with random jumping, or moving forward and backwards repeatedly. I really just can't stand still.

I do that a lot too, even on my rogue. I still have to press buttons, but strangely enough I find that spamming Sinister Strike (A key) while strafing left and right (S & F keys) tends be less strainful on the muscles than just spaming Sinister Strike by itself. It's a common thing that many melee players do because of the mobility.

[Eakin]

Oh Blizzard, you're so wacky

[Zeb The Troll]

I like that the last one is "Rated M for Mature".

[pffh]

I would so play westfall trail.

[Dublock]

I would so play westfall trail.

So would I. I wonder what are the odds that someone in my family gets hit with an illness and I can't do anything about it.

I like the crab on the main forums, although I can see it being annoying if it stays for to long.

[The Linker]

That was there for last year's April Fools'. It was so loved that it's back again. I wouldn't worry too much.

[MechaKingGhidra]

Unless I'm missing something obvious, I wasn't able to get rid of the crab by any means. Additionally, though, he changes headgear when you left-click so even after another year of him coming up, at least I wasn't *as* annoyed since I entertained myself via cycling through all of them. My favourite was the red bird upon his noggin.

Also, I couldn't get back to sleep so just a few minutes ago, I decided to log in and check a few things. Good thing I did.

Upon logging in to my mage, I remembered that I never got around to finishing 'Through a Glass, Darkly' because unless it's disgustingly early in the morning (like now), my connection is decent but not really good enough to avoid death on the boss fight at the end.

So not only was my connection superb for this purpose but I obviously had a tad better gear than last time I attempted it. It's amazing just how much of a noticeable difference all this made.

Now to convince my guild to do Firelands one more time because technically the branch is an upgrade for me from Sho'Ravon, the 384 staff from Ragnaros.

[Alchemistmerlin]

So, having done my 7 Heroics and both raids, I found myself without things to do. I panda'd about for a while, and ran into a few glitches that I wrote down (but haven't reported to the bug forum yet).

Then I went and decided "Hey, why not level my paladin?!".

80 to 81 feels like forever and I have entirely forgotten how to be a prot paladin.

[Dublock]

Unless I'm missing something obvious, I wasn't able to get rid of the crab by any means.

Pretty much any ad blocker addon will work.

Yea I've been leveling up my alts, working on my rogue. Also DMF is up so I've been doing that, working on the last mount on my main, and mini pets on my alts, since mini pets will be account wide in MoP :p

[Leon]

I like the crab on the main forums, although I can see it being annoying if it stays for to long.

It was annoying for the 20sec or so i was on my Armory page before i left as it wouldn't go away.

I miss RIFTs free character moves (and AoE looting, but i hear that Blizzard is getting onto that one in MoP). I have 3 characters that i'd like on my main realms and the idea that i'd have to pay $25 each to move them saddens me (have done it before - long ago before i played any other MMO)
I know its stupidly easy to level characters now but i don't want to just reroll them as i have expended quite a lot of time and resources in to them.(professions mostly)

[Dublock]

Personally I wish the crab had more things to say, as it ran out after spending 20 mins on the General discussion forum.

Although my biggest complaint is they need to make it smaller, the speech bubbles block access to a few buttons needing me to close it out.

On the flip side, I would love it to be a mini pet :P OH! perhaps it can be a buff notifier, like if I am missing my mage armor or the hunter has aspect of the pack up before we start a pull (ok, to be fair its more likely a pally has the incorrect aura up in my guild runs but still :P)

[JonRG]

It's April 2nd... the crab is still there.

[Zeb The Troll]

At the time of your posting, it was only 11PM April 1st on the west coast, where Blizzard tends center their timing (as evidenced by the fact that the Tuesday maintenance windows are always set to PST).

Alarra and I got 45 exalted reps a couple of days ago and we're closing in fast on DMF and Shattered Sun Offensive. Getting 50 before MoP is feeling doable.

[JonRG]

Actually, it was a few minutes before 11 AM April 2nd. I guess they'll get rid of him during Tuesday maintenance then.

[Zeb The Troll]

*facepalm*

I didn't even look at the AM/PM by the time stamp.

[Dublock]

Can you imagine the threads on Tuesday maintenance if Crabby is still there.

Tomorrow might be entertaining :P

[EagleWiz]

Bliznok my 85 warlock. Goals are currently DS heroics and getting trinkets.

Also the crab is awesome. I want one.

[Karoht]

@Two-Heal Zonozz
Pre-nerf we gave it a few attempts. We were JUST surviving by the skin of our teeth, and any sort of screw up on anyone's part guaranteed a wipe. Mind you, for the first 4 weeks of DS, the only upgrades that dropped were mail, which meant our shaman got pretty much everything. Also, Fatboss raid guides recommended 2 heals, and those were filmed the first week heroics were available.

@April Fools
Good stuff this year. Amazed at how many people always fall for it all, and how many people are butthurt about all of it.

Glyphs I've got, gems I'm...working on. Enchants are also a work in progress.

Gems are cheap if you buy them on sunday night or monday night. They go up on Tuesday pretty sharply, and then usually wind down again by sunday. Same with enchants really. Don't buy enchants, buy materials and get someone to make them for you, or just buy the enchants in the AH. PS-Jewelcrafting and Enchanting Alts pay for themselves in convenience, nevermind profit potential.

Are there really people who get to Heroic gear qualifying level with no clue of their rotation/priority?

Like the Fire Spec mage who spammed Icebolt and NOTHING ELSE for every boss? Okay, extreme example, but it happens. Yes, people do manage to failsauce their way that far and still know absolutely nothing about how to play their class. Or, the people I give a bit of slack to, those who run Spec A through heroics then switch to Spec B when they first step into raiding.
I've run with people in heroic raids who don't know what they are doing with their class. The Paladin who doesn't know how to bubble off a debuff? The resto druid who gets into treeform and spams absolutely nothing but rejuv and healing touch? This is before we see those who have a bit of a messy spec or poor glyph choices.

I watched some Raidfinder guides on the tubes of you, but I wanted to ask you guys as well:
What is something you wish baddies like myself knew before setting foot in raidfinder?
Trash and Boss patterns/strategies I think I have down.

Pretty much, don't be those people I just finished describing. Spec and Glyphs won't be critical in LFR, neither will gems or enchants. Heck, most people in LFR are gemless and have no enchants. If your spec and glyphs are working for you right now, good, keep rocking them. Change them up after a few forays into LFR.

Biggest things I would hope that anyone knows how to do in LFR?
-Know what 'bad stuff' is and don't be in it.
-If you can do a minimum of 16K on a target dummy, you're probably fine for LFR.
-Make sure that your UI and Keybinds all work. Go test them out in another raid, like Normal Mode Bastion of Twilight. Or even an ICC/Ulduar/ToC run.
-Cooldowns. What, when, how. Time a cooldown wrong and it's wasted, so you want to know exactly when to be pushing them. What is your 'window' of opportunity on this boss? Example-Hagara. Everyone bloodlust's about 3 seconds or so AFTER her elemental phase ends. Bloodlust 5 seconds BEFORE it ends (you need to keep an eye out for this) and you'll do signifigantly more damage and get more use out of Bloodlust.

I would also recommend, read up on the fight, not just watch video. www.wowpedia.org has a written article for each boss, including their abilities. It's worth it to just familiarize yourself with terms and effects. If not, read the dungeon journal. What I do is I watch the video, then I run the video again but I read the dungeon journal entry or wowpedia.org entry at the same time.

And last piece of advice.
See that guy? Over there? The guy who is wearing the heroic DS gear? If he says do something, odds are he knows what he's talking about. Why is he in LFR with a heroic geared character? Probably to either test out something or is just feeling nice. For the love of bob and all things wholely, don't immediately label this person as elitist jerkwad, no-lifer, or anything else, when that person suggests a better way for you to do something. He may come off as rude, though that might not be the intention, don't assume them to be jerkwads just because they have cleared higher content. Most of the time, if you see someone like this in LFR, they're probably nice people helping out their guildies or just enjoying the content and having fun, they probably are not there to be pushy or rude or wave their epeen around. Give them the benefit of the doubt.

[Dublock]

Heck, most people in LFR are gemless and have no enchants. If your spec and glyphs are working for you right now, good, keep rocking them. Change them up after a few forays into LFR.

Completely guilty on this one. My Restro druid, my 2nd level 85, first healer and what do I do? I enter LFR with ~378 gear (in my defense I leveled this toon by dungeons as a healer and my spec/glyphs are right :P), no gems, no enchants and only put in gems/enchants on gear I got from LFR. Although I just now put gems/enchants in my 378 tier hands as I got my 4pc and was expecting to enter normal DS :P

And last piece of advice.
See that guy? Over there? The guy who is wearing the heroic DS gear? If he says do something, odds are he knows what he's talking about.

This. I hate it when I enter LFR and the only person saying the proper way of doing it is being blasted for being an Elitist.

My own peice of advice. Do LFR today, tomorrow maby. A lot of better people do LFR Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Lately I've been lazy and been doing LFR on my druid towards the end of the week and I wipe on the majority of fights -.- (Mostly the second set of bosses, Ultra, warmaster, and DW)

[Karoht]

Weekend Report:
Finished getting my Warlock to 85. I had her parked at 84 (just high enough to finish the introductory quests in Twilight Highlands so I could get at the new patterns and shard trader and such), so it wasn't a big deal. She's going to continue to be my profession alt (enchanting + tailoring) going forward into MoP.

Karoht is likely going to end up switching to Herb/Alch at long last. The perks are just better, and for the initial farm-fest before we start raiding in MoP, I'll be far more useful right away, rather than having to level Karoht to raid, then having to level my current Herb/Alch person to start farming.

My Pandaren Brewmaster Monk (Pappapao) is going to pick up Skinning and Leatherworking to level with. Or Mining and Jewelcrafting, if I'm feeling saucy.

[Alchemistmerlin]

Another successful raidfinder run last night, but no loot sadly. During Siege of Wyrmrest Temple we had an incident where, in the room full of slimes (I'd look up the bosses name but work blocks ALL the everything), we somehow pulled 3 packs at once. (Well, rather, 2 packs and the remnants of one we had been in the midst of destroying)

We survived, which was neat, and it was incredibly hectic and fun.

I did have a question: During various "Everyone in X area takes a billionty damage" boss abilities, is it at all helpful for my Enh. Shaman to drop healing rain on top of the healer's various abilities? I know it is almost no health, comparatively, but I'm not sure if every little bit helps, or if I'm wasting a GCD.

[Karoht]

Another successful raidfinder run last night, but no loot sadly. During Siege of Wyrmrest Temple we had an incident where, in the room full of slimes (I'd look up the bosses name but work blocks ALL the everything), we somehow pulled 3 packs at once. (Well, rather, 2 packs and the remnants of one we had been in the midst of destroying)

We survived, which was neat, and it was incredibly hectic and fun.

We pull the whole room full of slimes when we have a healer we want to test out. It's fun.

I did have a question: During various "Everyone in X area takes a billionty damage" boss abilities, is it at all helpful for my Enh. Shaman to drop healing rain on top of the healer's various abilities? I know it is almost no health, comparatively, but I'm not sure if every little bit helps, or if I'm wasting a GCD.

Does it help? Yes and no. It's healing, sure, but it's not all that and a bag of chips either.
Is it better to do DPS? Yes. You killing the boss faster is of greater consequence than the benefit from your off-healing. Especially on fights with DPS timers such as Ultraxion or Zonozz or even Yorsahj.


Raid Report:
One shot 5/8 heroic last night. Worked on Blackhorn for quite a while, we're getting into phase 2 consistantly.


Pet/Mount Report:
I got the White Hawkstrider from Kaelthas. I now have no mounts or pets I can obtain via solo'ing bosses from BC, as I can't solo Tempest Keep, and I always bring my fiance with me when I go after Attumen the Huntsman.
Looks like it's Stratholme runs for Baron Rivendare when I'm bored.

[Expf]

I now have no mounts or pets I can obtain via solo'ing bosses from BC, as I can't solo Tempest Keep, and I always bring my fiance with me when I go after Attumen the Huntsman.

You can do that as a druid (also DK, Enhancement, and likely any tanking class). Feral is the easiest way but Balance also works. I've gotten to the habit of doing that weekly since the Mind Control mechanic makes duoing harder than soloing.

[Zeb The Troll]

So, I've taken a couple weeks off from the Saturday RealID achievement runs, but I've been asked to do another one. The goal will be to roll out at 8PM eastern time.

As always, let me know if you're interested and make sure I have your RealID (unless you're on Argent Dawn US).

[Karoht]

Never actually tried it solo. Kind of figured that I would just get MC'd and it would reset the encounter or something. Cool sauce.

Stonecore and Vortex Pinnacle are the next two I want to spam. You can get 3 people together and just run normal mode over and over until people get the mount.
Still working on the ToC dailies. 54/500 left to go.

Hopefully we'll down H Al'akir this weekend. Fingers crossed that the mount drops.

[subanark]

We had to sub someone in for DS this week, so we didn't do progression and just did the instance on tuesday. That means either Rags heroic attempts or pushing though BoT heroic (depending on who shows up). It is rather annoying that we are so far ahead of anyone else our faction on the server, and our group is razor thin that even a single absence will completely halt any progression that week.

As for the achievement run, I'm up too it as long as you don't do anything I end up getting locked too. I do have various level 85 alts that are "Ding I'm 85" geared (with one geared enough to do T11).