World of Warcraft XIII: Even Aspects Get Nerfed

[Dublock]

Anybody have issues with the game randomly minimizing itself to the taskbar?

No, I have not had that issue on my desktop or laptop. Not sure whats going on.

[Karoht]

@Money Making

General Tips. Spoilered because I'm pretty sure everyone knows this, but worth a read if you are new to "playing the auction house game" so to speak.

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A quick word on crafted mounts, I've seen all of them going, and going quick, at 90-160K. Price them well and they will sell. That is the mantra I keep hearing.
Same with pets and battle pets. Right now it's easy enough to take pets that you have doubles of, give them a few combat levels and list them. Buyer and Seller beware though, it is an extremely fickle and volatile market.

My auctioneer/banker alt who lives in Orgrimmar is currently doing nothing but buying and selling herbs and ore. Buy low and sell high is a nice enough tip, but I say go one step further.
With any stackable commodity, be it dust, cloth, herbs, or anything else, convenience pricing tends to be a wise method. I'll explain.
Say I just bought a bunch of dust for cheap. I could re-list it (and markup) in 20 stacks, or I could re-list it all individually. OR, I could make bundles of product which are convenient for quick purchases. 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, and 20 are the common bundle sizes. Also, by breaking down the product in this manner, you get way more market exposure. What I mean is, if I have 10 lots up at all of those sizes (2x10, 3x10, 4x10, 5x10, 8x10, 10x10) I have more people seeing my product when they scroll through, than if I just left it all at 20 stacks. As for solo stacks, they're okay, but it is easy to get undercut and therefore shoved off the first page/s.

Secondly, be willing to buyout a bunch of product so you can re-list at a higher prices. This especially includes your competition. When I can literally buy ALL of the essences or shards from the market (especially if they went for a crazy undercut, like 25% of average pricing), I can near enough set the price for that commodity, so long as I do so reasonably. And hey, if it is cheap, more inventory for you to sell, meaning more money long term.

Lastly, stuff that people use to upgrade their gear (enchants, gems, etc) sell best on tuesday and wednesday when the raids reset. Sometimes you see a good spike of activity on the weekend though. Try to always have fresh inventory up and ready on tuesday. List it after 6pm though. Why? If you're the first person to list stuff on Tuesday, you will be undercut, flat out. After 6pm, most people are in raids so they aren't watching their auctions, so they can't come and undercut you. After 9-10pm, prices are usually stable, so you know where things stand and can adjust accordingly.

Now for the professions themselves so far.
My very reliable trick as a Transmutation Alchemist is Ghost Iron Bars -> Trillium Bars -> Living Steel.
Living Steel is required for belt buckles and weapon chains. 1x Living Steel is going for 900-1300. All I have to do is buy Ghost Iron Bars. Why Bars you ask? Because ore can be prospected, so it is almost double the cost of Bars.
Bars transmuting to Trillium proc's extra Trillium Bars (1 in 4), and I seem to have really good luck proc'ing 2x Living Steel so far. About 50% of the time. So 600G worth of Bars turns into upwards of 2600G in Living Steel + Leftover Trillium. Sadly, only once per day unless I want to burn some Spirit of Harmony.
Flasks require Golden Lotus, so that puts a damper on Flasks being a decently profitable market. They're selling well, but not THAT well to make up for having to find/buy Golden Lotus. Lots of money in the new sleeping-to-get-mana potion (the one that I never remember the name of) though. They will probably be stable for the whole expansion, and they are reasonably low cost on materials.

Transmuting Gems (from Green Quality to Blue Quality) seems to be prohibitively expensive due to requiring Golden Lotus. It remains to be seen how viable this becomes further into the expansion, but for now this doesn't appear to be a money maker for Alchemy.

Jewelcrafting has that issue. I'm curious what people are doing with their Green Quality gems right now. I understand you can cut them and they can proc into blue quality gems (identical stats to a blue quality of the same color and cut) but the pricing on those gems isn't much of a money maker, and it begs the question of what to do with the gems that don't proc it. Next option is turning them into items (rings and amulets) and sending them to an enchanter do disenchant.

Leatherworking, right now it is all about the Leg Enchants. Get your Golden Lotus rep to Honored ASAP, get those patterns. The regular ones don't sell for much, but the high end ones sell very well at high cost, and it only takes 50 leather + 1 Spirit of Harmony. The leather is cheap to buy, and it really doesn't take long to get 50 leather if you know where to go. I'm still hunting for a pattern that is exclusively leather that sells well, but I don't think it exists. So yeah, Leg Enchants. Enjoy.

Tailoring Leg Enchants are solid money makers. The rep pattern enchants only cost you 1 Imperial Silk, which you can make once per day from 8 Bolts of Windwool Cloth. So once per day you can make one for the cost of 2 stacks of cloth, which can be cheap or free. The normal patterns are a few bolts, but are selling for consistantly double or triple the cost of the bolts, so go nuts.
Speaking of Cloth, odd pricing trend on my server. Cloth itself sells for 20g or less per stack. A stack will get me 4 bolts. 1 Bolt will sell for upwards of 10-20g. Each. So yes, I am indeed buying cloth like a madman and turning it into bolts and making a pretty solid profit. Nevermind turning the bolts into cheap leg enchants when bolt prices are low.

I don't know squat about Engineering and how they make money, but I hear tell that there is a head item they can make for cheap, it levels them up really well, and you can throw the cogwheels in for someone. Go to Jade Forest and spam the channel with offers to create this for someone, and most 85's will buy it for that early on boost. Yes, only other Engineers can take advantage of the Cogwheels, they're still buying it. There is also a trinket they can make, no cogwheel so everyone can use it. You're better off selling it in Jade Forest as opposed to the AH though, but throw a few in AH anyway, you never know.

Blacksmiths are rocking the Belt Buckles again. 1300 each on my server, and that's cheap. Not sure what else they're selling beyond the tanking chest that goes for around 30K.

Inscription. Three words. Shoulder Slot Enchants. You are the ONLY source of them. Enjoy.
Also, Cards. They sell real good right now. Good luck getting decks together. Depending on card costs, it is totally worth it to buy/sell/trade cards to get decks. Remember, these trinkets will probably be out of style by the end of this Tier, so make good while the getting is good.
In regards to Milling, Green Tea and River Poppy are plentiful in Jade Forest, and uber cheap on AH.

Good luck!

[Zherog]

Lastly, stuff that people use to upgrade their gear (enchants, gems, etc) sell best on tuesday and wednesday when the raids reset. Sometimes you see a good spike of activity on the weekend though. Try to always have fresh inventory up and ready on tuesday. List it after 6pm though. Why? If you're the first person to list stuff on Tuesday, you will be undercut, flat out. After 6pm, most people are in raids so they aren't watching their auctions, so they can't come and undercut you. After 9-10pm, prices are usually stable, so you know where things stand and can adjust accordingly.

With basic mats (wool, silk, copper, fish, etc) I've always had very good luck listing them over a weekend. My theory is that the Average Joe Gamer is logging in on the weekend and playing, and looking to blow through leveling various professions. He'd rather get that 10 points in cooking now rather than going to fish for an hour, or he'd rather get those points in BS or jewelcraft rather than mining, etc.

I also find weekends are good times to find deals on the AH - whether it be for stuff you want to re-sell or for items you want like recipes, etc. Same theory here from me - Average Joe Gamer isn't really paying close attention to current prices, etc on the AH. He's just dumping his stuff there after spending a few hours gaming.

But... I've never actually sat down and analyzed when my stuff sells and doesn't sell, or for how much. So I most certainly could be suffering from confirmation bias.

[ZeroNumerous]

Yes, only other Engineers can take advantage of the Cogwheels, they're still buying it. There is also a trinket they can make, no cogwheel so everyone can use it. You're better off selling it in Jade Forest as opposed to the AH though, but throw a few in AH anyway, you never know.

Actually, non-engineers can benefit from tinker gears(this expac's version of cogwheels), and the trinket has 3 spots for tinker gears in it in addition to a proc chance for a combat pet. So engineers can sell both gears and the trinket, but the trinket won't survive past the initial tier of raiding.

[Aidan305]

Whoot! Hallow's End starts today!

My favourite festival of the year, simply because the Horseman is such an amazing character.

[Karoht]

Actually, non-engineers can benefit from tinker gears(this expac's version of cogwheels), and the trinket has 3 spots for tinker gears in it in addition to a proc chance for a combat pet. So engineers can sell both gears and the trinket, but the trinket won't survive past the initial tier of raiding.

Still, for leveling, that's a pretty significant amount of stats.
I had no idea that Tinker Gears were something that everyone can use. I'm going to have to look into those.


UPDATE:
Karoht has completed LFR.
My thoughts on Mogu'Shan Vaults?
Visually? Pretty. It's not jaw dropping every 5 feet, but when you see a new room there is a lot to take in.
Bosses? All fun. I don't entirely understand them all just yet, but the challenge level was just right for LFR. It's equal to Dragon Soul on Normal. I'm actually excited to try out normal mode now.

My Performance?
I walked in with the lowest gear you could enter the place, so I had no gear advantage.
I was #2 healer all night, and the two healers who kept switching between 1st and 3rd were in 470 gear to my 460. So I've got my groove, I just need to learn more and start lining up cooldowns better. Things are looking good.
Also, for those of you who were wondering about Bloom Shroom usage, let me just say that it really is incredible how mana efficient that spell is, in a raid environment. Lean on it, hard, and your mana management becomes much less of an issue.


I'll talk more about mana management in the morning. Night!

[Krazzman]

Still, for leveling, that's a pretty significant amount of stats.
I had no idea that Tinker Gears were something that everyone can use. I'm going to have to look into those.


UPDATE:
Karoht has completed LFR.
My thoughts on Mogu'Shan Vaults?
Visually? Pretty. It's not jaw dropping every 5 feet, but when you see a new room there is a lot to take in.
Bosses? All fun. I don't entirely understand them all just yet, but the challenge level was just right for LFR. It's equal to Dragon Soul on Normal. I'm actually excited to try out normal mode now.

My Performance?
I walked in with the lowest gear you could enter the place, so I had no gear advantage.
I was #2 healer all night, and the two healers who kept switching between 1st and 3rd were in 470 gear to my 460. So I've got my groove, I just need to learn more and start lining up cooldowns better. Things are looking good.
Also, for those of you who were wondering about Bloom Shroom usage, let me just say that it really is incredible how mana efficient that spell is, in a raid environment. Lean on it, hard, and your mana management becomes much less of an issue.


I'll talk more about mana management in the morning. Night!

Ah you'll only have seen the first three bosses, right? The most fun is still missing. It's the Spirit Kings. They are sooo awesome. Quite easy except for the crazy/whiny king but well... was sort of angry at the blatant namethieving they did with one of the kings but we tried Elegon on Tuesday... I think we might again see the enrage timer at this boss... as we have seen with the other two bosses as well... Blizzard just seems to hate the "normal" setup of 3 Healers 2 Tanks and 5 guys who are to lazy to be healer or tank.

My GF hit Exalted with the Tillers yesterday and I'll probably reach that today. I couldn't hit my points cap last ID and therefore still am without Waistslot but this will change this evening.
Another thing that sucks is... Haste. This stat seems to be rarely on any item. The Mogu'Shan Vaults endboss has a headpiece for me with hit/haste. The other bosses either have something without hit or without haste... mostly without haste. Feng has my Offhand and I think elegon can drop a mainhand but else it's not that good.

The tokens you can trade in for gear are cool but how am I supposed to spend them all? I can trade 90/week for 3. I'm killing at least 4 bosses and even I used them on every boss so far... I don't get those little tokens out of my inventory. Have about 2 Stacks of them (280 each).

@AH-strategies:
Their lies a paradox in the weekend. On the one hand all prices go up because now everyone will be raiding/playing/getting new stuff etc. but on the same hand the competition grows. My main point is that I don't need any money. Not really. 45k Gold are enough for repairing (get that from the Guild) and afaik Spirit of Harmony is... plantable. Yeah you can use your Tillers fields to get Cloth, Enchanting Mats, Ore (if you can mine it), Flowers and Motes of Harmony. Resulting in about 1.5 Spirits per day.

[Dublock]

Ah you'll only have seen the first three bosses, right? The most fun is still missing. It's the Spirit Kings. They are sooo awesome.

All 6 bosses are able to be killed in LFR. The last 3 were unlocked Tues.

I got my alchy/herbs up to 500 yesterday.

[Decatus]

Hey there guys. So, I've been doing what I told myself I'd never do - I'm thinking about coming back to WoW. I quit right before the Deathwing raid was released, so it's been quite a while, so I've got some questions.

I know a lot of people have taken issue with Pandaria being the new area and with Pandaren the race. Honestly, I'm fine with it - WoW has always had a tradition of pop culture jokes, and it pokes fun at itself, so I feel that it fits right in. My question though, is how fun are the new zones and race? How do they feel, in relation to the older X-pack zones?

If I come back, I'll be playing a Pandaren Brewmaster Monk. In every MMO I've played, I tank (or Support, in the case of Guild Wars 2). I've always wanted to play a tank in Leather (the most visually appealing armor to me in WoW is leather) where I can actually see the armor and weapons I'm using. That's the main reason I never played a Feral tank.

Anywho. I've been looking into the Monk abilities and talents, and everything looks pretty cool. It seems like Blizz has really tried making a new kind of class with the Monk. What I haven't been able to find is how it feels. Does the Monk feel new, and innovative, or does it feel like a wonky-pseudo-Rogue?

Lastly, if I come back I'll be starting over on a new server. I don't have the time to seriously raid or be in a progression guild - I'm in my last year of College, and getting ready for graduate school next year. With the advent of the Looking for Raid feature, however, I can finally get a raid in here or there. Does anyone here belong to a Guild that is fairly casual and relaxed about raiding that would be willing to take me in? I always end up quitting MMO's due to not having anyone to play with - they just aren't much fun alone - so if I came back I'd like to have a group of people I can chat with and play with from the beginning.

Thanks for your time guys; I'm coming here because you're all pretty dang knowledgeable, and from what I've seen lurking on this thread for the last couple of years, you all seem to be pretty nice people. So, thanks in advance for any information you can give me.

[Karoht]

@Pandarens and Pop Culture
*sigh*
Pandarens existed in WC3 as canon a solid 10 years before Dreamworks was even a studio, never mind releasing Kung Fu Panda. Just saying.


@Elder Coins of Good Fortune
I blew all of them last night in LFR. I had 6. When all the raids are open and all the bosses are available to us, I imagine that spending them all won't really be an issue. The most you can get is 3 per week, and that is IF you do your dailies dilligently AND never miss turning in your 90 lessers for 3 Elders every week. Though I imagine the conversion from lesser to elder might get relaxed at some point. It's a bit strict right now in terms of timing and the conversion itself. It's clunky, people will likely complain, they might smooth it out a bit.


@LFR
6 Bosses open now. Had a great time, I really did. I am properly terrified of healing Heroic versions of these bosses. That is a good thing.


Mana Management-A Guide to Never Stopping Rocking!
Spoiler'd for "Holy Wall of Text Batman"-ness

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Mana Conservation and Healing

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-Approximation
It is important to use the right heal at the right time. This is one of the first skills that healers must master. Overhealing isn't horrible, but it represents inefficiency, or potentially wasted mana. One trick I use to help me line up the right heal for the job, is approximation. I approximate the amount of healing needed based on how many hit points are missing VS how much my spells can heal. For example, the tank is down 70K. I know that my Big Heal (Healing Touch) can do 90K and crit for 180K. I know my Slow Heal (Nourish) can do about 30K and crit for 60K. So a Nourish might be able to save the day but Healing Touch will for certain save the day. Approximation requires two key pieces of knowledge. How much health the target is missing, and how powerful your healing spells are individually. After that, the choice of which one to use at that point becomes a matter of situational judgement. Nourish + HoTs on the tank might be able to handle it in one cast, maybe not. Maybe the tank is having his teeth kicked in, so a Healing Touch might be better. Maybe the rest of the raid is having their world rocked, so I need to prioritize getting the tank topped up quick and then shift to helping out the raid. Again, situational judgement.

-Timeline
As for such judgements, it is often best to think about each healing situation in terms of time. Answer the question "how much time do I have" to top people off, and most often, the answer will lead you towards which tool to make use of.
Let's take a melee DPS. He's missing half his health. How much time I have to bring him back up will likely determine which tool I try and use. Do I have more than 5 seconds? HoT + Nourish might do the trick, and would be less expensive than using a Healing Touch. Do I have 3 seconds or less? My Fast Heal (Regrowth) or an instant cast such as Swiftmend might be the better tool. Less than 2 seconds? I'm probably going to resort to using Natures Swiftness + Healing Touch to make that cast instant.

Uptime/Downtime-Harmony, Lifebloom, Swiftmend, Wild Growth, Bloom Shrooms

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-Harmony
This is our mastery effect, and will boost your healing by a minimum of 15%, which is a considerable factor of your mana efficiency. It is vital to ensure that this is up and active with 100% uptime. It lasts 20 seconds, Swiftmend will trigger it, Bloom Shrooms will trigger it, any kind direct healing will trigger it. There is next to no reason why this shouldn't be up 100% of the time.

-Lifebloom
3 Stacks up at all times. 100% uptime is needed here. Get the Glyph of Lifebloom, and you can instantly move those 3 stacks to anyone with a single click. If you have this Glyph, your goal is then to have it up, all the time, and on someone taking damage whenever possible. Given the low cost of the spell, and the versetility (especially if you have the Glyph), this is an incredibly efficient spell.
3 stacks on the tank, suddenly someone takes damage. Click that person, you now have an applicable HoT for Nourish, Nourish the target, click back to the tank. It is important to ensure this spell is getting it's maxiumum use, so if tanks are stable, swap those stacks to someone who just took a bunch of damage.

-Swiftmend
Quite possibly our most efficient heal, and that is before one takes the Efflorescence (AoE healing patch) into account. The spell is cheap, it's healing is potent. It is the kind of effect that you want to use often. Do I recommend using it every cooldown? Mostly yes.
The catch is, even using it every cooldown, you still want to use it to it's maximum effect if possible. On every fight, this will vary. If it is a fight where everyone stacks up, then just about any target is a good pick. If it is a fight where everyone spreads out, then you probably want to stick to either yourself or a Tank. In fact, in just about every situation, using Swiftmend on a Tank is rarely considered to be a waste, so long as that Tank is actually down by roughly that amount of hit points or more. But, if clusters of targets are available, aim for them. This is where effective communication really pays off for healers, because if people know where to cluster up, it makes life really easy for any healer who has similar area of effect spells.
Bottom line, it is a very mana efficient spell, if it is available for use, you probably should use it.

-Wild Growth
It is efficient, to a point. But there are concerns. First off, NEVER ever use Wild Growth if your Harmony is not active. It is a complete and utter waste. Second, try to "aim" for as many targets as possible. This requires you to 'read the field' a bit, and takes time and practice to get used to. None the less, aim for the maximum target density whenever possible. Glyph of Wild Growth cranks it from 4 to 6 targets but extends the cooldown by 2 seconds, to a total of 10 seconds. I like the Glyph for a few reasons. More targets = More Mana Efficient. A shorter cooldown is harder to maximize the cooldown usage (have to click more often), and that does mean that you spend more mana because you click more often. I've heard tell that the Glyph isn't entirely required, but for mana efficiency reasons I believe it to be better than going without it.
Should you use it every time it is available? Given the cost, it isn't a bad idea, but it tends to be a better idea to line it up with expected damage. Given the shorter cooldown and easier positional requirement when compaired to Swiftmend, it is actually much easier to line up in such a way, or use it as a panic button. Fights where there is constant pulsing damage (IE-Ultraxion, Blood Queen Lana'thel, Feng and Elegon) Wild Growth will be best used every time it is active. Fights where there is more randomized bursts, it becomes a tougher call. Use your judgement well.

-Bloom Shrooms
Planting the mushrooms is free. It's the hit of healing that will cost you. This is a very efficient heal as well. It's actually sitting in second or third place after Swiftmend, depending on who you talk to. The Bloom is a small cost instant cast, and instantly activates all of your mushrooms. That is the important thing here. If you have 1 mushroom or 3, it costs the same amount. Which means that from a mana efficiency standpoint, you want to only Bloom them when you have 3 of them positioned. You also want them well positioned to maximize the effect. If you consistantly have large clusters of people, use this spell every chance you get. If people are going to spread out, consider using it a bit less, or saving it for big bursts rather than constant use.
The Action Economy cost is the tricky part. Using that time to plant a mushroom rather than cast a heal, could mean that you are behind on healing and therefore have to be less efficient fixing it. This is where judgement is vital when using this ability. Reading the field right will save you mana, reading the field wrong will probably put you behind in the short term or long term.
Try to designate stack up points if the fight does not require people to spread out. If you can't do that, then pick the biggest cluster of people and plant mushrooms in that area. At worst, plant them on the boss and catch the tank and your melee. If you know the boss will be mobile, then you have to anticipate when the boss will move, and trigger the mushrooms before that. Time it too late, people won't be in range.
Also, due to the fact that mushrooms cost nothing at all, don't be afraid to reposition them. Yes, action economy is a concern here, but if you have the time, and you can heal some people with mushrooms VS waiting for them to get back in range, reposition.

Mana Cooldowns-Personal

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-Nature's Swiftness
This spell lets you cast a Healing Touch, which heals for 50% more, instantly, and for no mana what so ever. My advice is to macro this bad boy, so that it is always used on Healing Touch, and not accidentally on Nourish or Regrowth. As for linking it directly to your Healing Touch casts, I remain hesitant on doing so. Sure, you will never miss a cooldown, which is good in most ways, but you also lose the opportunity to use it on demand and make the life saving heal that saves the raid. Use it as often as possible, but use it wisely. I've seen it do 250K crits in blue gear. Which is just about 50% of a Tank's hit points. Think of this like a Paladin's Lay on Hands, only usable once per minute. Use it, abuse it.

-Clearcasting
Lifebloom ticks proc Clearcasting. One free cast of Healing Touch or Regrowth. I have heard two schools of thought on this. Casting Regrowth when you have Clearcasting up, means that you boost your healing per second and buy some action economy (and leave a HoT behind on a target, could be useful for Swiftmend), and due to it's high chance to crit you are likely to also leave behind a Living Seed which will protect against the next hit. With Healing Touch, you are getting a really big heal for free, it just takes 3 seconds to cast it. And during that cast time, that is 3 seconds of mana regeneration as well.
Personally, I usually choose Healing Touch unless I need the speedy heals. But if we want to discuss conservation of mana, I think Healing Touch nets you the most bonus. Regen time plus a free version of your most expensive and highest output heal. Choosing Regrowth is choosing Healing per Second and some tactical perks, choosing Healing touch is choosing Healing per Mana which is the metric used to evaluate mana efficiency. Again, judgement is important.

-Treeform?
Treeform is a mana cooldown? It certainly is, though it is hard to see it this way. It is also a throughput cooldown, giving you more healing per mana for it's duration. But that's not all.
Treeform makes all of your Regrowth casts instant. Given the high cost and lower efficiency of Regrowth (compaired to your other heals) this doesn't sound so great, right?
Treeform allows you to have as many stacks of Lifebloom active as you can maintain. Lifebloom proc's Clearcasting. Use the Clearcasting proc's to throw out free and instant cast Regrowths on anyone you want.
There are some challenges associated with Treeform though. You want to spam Lifebloom on as many targets as possible, to encourage more Clearcasting proc's. This means that Tanks need to be looked after while you throw Lifeblooms on the raid.
Secondly, there are your other cooldown based abilities to consider. You want to be absolutely sure that you use Swiftmend and Wild Growth as much as possible during this cooldown, due to the improved effect.
Lastly, you need to be quick with your Regrowths, because Clearcasting doesn't stack up or anything. You need to expend the Clearcasting quickly so that another one can proc. Quick decisions are key here. Also, to make it easier to keep your Lifeblooms all going, try to pick targets which have Lifebloom on them to refresh them with your Regrowth casts.
Maximize the impact of Treeform and you'll find that your mana bar will be in a better place as a result. It's not uncommon to see a Druid use Treeform and spam away, and end up with more mana then when they started.

-Innervate
This knowledge applies to many different types of mana cooldowns, it is not just limited to Innervate specifically.
Currenty, Innervate restores a fixed amount of mana over 10 seconds. That figure is 20% of maximum mana. Which is 60000 if you don't have a specific meta-gem, or 61200 if you do. I highly recommend that gem, it's name escapes me presently, but it adds an extra 2% to your maximum mana.
As for when to use Innervate, the timing is actually pretty easy to figure out.
The cooldown will restore X amount of mana, total? Your first usage of the cooldown should take you back to full, or close to it, so you have the maximum amount of mana to carry you until the next time you can possibly use the cooldown. You use the cooldown when you are at (maximum mana minus X) mana. So if Innervate will will give you 60K, it's probably best to activate Innervate somewhere around 240K mana remaining, or shortly before. Due to the over time effect of Innervate, I pick 250K just to be sure, but this is a bit of a judgement call. Either way, Innervate should bring you back up to the neighborhood of 300K, which buys you the maximum amount of mana to last until the 3 minute cooldown is up. And from there, you follow pretty much the same rule. Am I below 250K? Is Innervate available? If you answer yes to both questions, use it. If you answer no to either question, wait until the answer is yes to both.

Mana Cooldowns-Raid-wide

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-Hymm of Hope
This cooldown temporarily boosts target's maximum mana, and gives them a bunch of mana. This is the PRIME time for Innervate to be used. Also, this cooldown is on a longer cooldown. 5 minutes. In a 6 minute fight you could theoretically use it twice. However, in the final minute of a boss encounter, you may not have time to channel it. If you do plan on using it in such a way, try to time it with a healing cooldown such as Tranquility or Divine Hymm or Spirit Link.
Otherwise, sometimes it is best to plan using it at a fixed time, such as 3 or 4 minutes into the fight, on a specific phase or phase transition, etc.
If your group has more than 1 Priest in it, I recommend staggering Hymm of Hope.

-Mana Tide Totem
Due to the fact that this helps the whole raid, it is probably best to set a specific timeframe for this cooldown's usage. This way other healers know to either save their cooldowns for after this point, or use them prior to it, so that it is not wasted.

Non-Resto Druid Innervates
Boomkin Innervate cast on someone else is only 30K mana returned at best. However, it is still useful in some regard. I recommend picking a specific point (IE-Line it up with Hymm of Hope) and have preset targets (macro's are a good idea too, it's fire and forget) to make things as smooth as possible.

-Rotation
In a raid group with 1 Resto Shaman and 1 Priest (any), I recommend the following rotation of mana cooldowns.
1 minute mark-Personal cooldowns should already be used by this point.
2 minute mark-Mana Tide Totem
4 minute mark-Hymm of Hope (potentially, with personal cooldowns used as well)
and from there on use all of the abilities on cooldown. Do not expect to see a second Hymm of Hope, but if the fight goes that long, be extremely careful about the timing and try to announce it with a 1 minute warning and a 30 second warning, so other healers can coordinate accordingly.

Timing

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Potion/Sleep
On longer fights, especially on Heroic Modes, it will likely be necessary to potion (instant 30K mana) or sleep (more mana but over 10 seconds channel). I always say that this is an individual choice per healer on timing, but I've seen so many errors of judgement on the sleep potions.
If you know another healer will for certain be using a major cooldown during a specific phase, and you know you will be low on mana by that point (hard to plan for), then try to hold out until that cooldown effect happens and use the sleep then.
Also, if you can apply shields or hots prior to doing so, do it. Druids should 'sleep' in their Efflorescence, or at the very least surrounded by Bloom Shrooms so that when they wake up they can tap one button for some healing. Try to have a HoT/Shield on you before you Sleep. Druids can use Barkskin on a very short cooldown, try to line up Barkskin with a potion if possible, just so you take less damage while sleeping. Also, try and tell your raid that you will be sleeping before hand. I like to line up my Barkskin for a sleep, so I have a built in counter right there, and can easily give a 15-20 second warning right there.
Popping Innervate at the same time doesn't hurt. Potion + Innervate + Regen will usually take me from nearly zero mana to almost 200K.
Do not EVER sleep during a Hymm of Hope. You're already down a healer, no point in being down a second one, and the sleep doesn't benefit in any way. Sleep through a Tranquility, sleep through a Divine Hymm, but not a Hymm of Hope. Be very careful not to confuse the two hymms.

Cooldown Timing-Defensive
Obviously, timing your personal defensive cooldowns is best left for moments of high damage. But considering fights where damage is constant (Ultraxion), using these cooldowns every chance you get means less damage you have to pay attention to on yourself, even if it's just for a moment or two. If you need to focus on the tank, or focus on the raid, not having to spend action economy or mana on yourself is a win.

Cooldown Timing-Healing Output
Moments of greatest need tends to be the mantra. But, consider the 'catch up' value of your cooldowns as well. For example, lets say that the whole raid is below half health. To top them back up is going to take an incredible amount of mana. A usage of Treeform at this point might save you considerable amounts of mana. Sure, the high output isn't necessary right that second, but you're also taking burden away from other healers as well.
Or a Tranquility. Or a Divine Hymm. It's 25K mana, sure. But you'll burn that topping up 2 people, never mind all 10, never mind maintaining the tank at the same time. Sometimes it is better in the long run to say 'heck with it' pop a cooldown, and get things back on track, rather than fighting hard to climb back up.

TL:DR-Mana Management is hard rite?


@Potential Guilds
There are a load of good 'social' guilds on Area 52. Just hang out in trade chat for a while, you'll see plenty of them. I would invite you to join my current guild, but I'm probably going to leave it for a progression focused guild in short order. And Area 52 is a pretty decent server. Most of the trolls are actually funny rather than annoyances, and easy enough to ignore.

[The_Jackal]

@Money Making
Blacksmiths are rocking the Belt Buckles again. 1300 each on my server, and that's cheap. Not sure what else they're selling beyond the tanking chest that goes for around 30K.

When the Living Steel Bar can cost as much as 1300, there's not much margin on the belt buckle. On the other hand, any of the blacksmithing gear recipes ought to sell pretty well, from the intro PVP plate, to the Klaxxi purple crafted pieces. The hard part for the last is the Spirits of Harmony. The moral being: Do your Tillers' dailies.

Hey there guys. So, I've been doing what I told myself I'd never do - I'm thinking about coming back to WoW.

We've all been there. Thing is, Pandaria is pretty cool, once you get over the friggen Pandas.

Does anyone here belong to a Guild that is fairly casual and relaxed about raiding that would be willing to take me in?

You should probably post your playtimes, guild activity tend to bunch around a particular timeslot. Also, state your preference for a PVP/PVE server. Just a suggestion. If you're into PVP, and play on evenings in Pacific time, my Guild will take you in. We're small, but cool.

[Decatus]

@Pandarens and Pop Culture
*sigh*
Pandarens existed in WC3 as canon a solid 10 years before Dreamworks was even a studio, never mind releasing Kung Fu Panda. Just saying.

@Potential Guilds
There are a load of good 'social' guilds on Area 52. Just hang out in trade chat for a while, you'll see plenty of them. I would invite you to join my current guild, but I'm probably going to leave it for a progression focused guild in short order. And Area 52 is a pretty decent server. Most of the trolls are actually funny rather than annoyances, and easy enough to ignore.

Ah, slight misunderstanding. I played WC3 back in the day - the pandaren dude was actually my favorite hero character. The pop culture jokes was more of an appreciation of the fact that WoW doesn't take itself too terribly seriously. Poor phrasing on my part.

And if I came back Area 52 is one of the servers I knew to look for. I've heard good things bout it from a decent number of people. Thanks for the info.

.
We've all been there. Thing is, Pandaria is pretty cool, once you get over the friggen Pandas.

You should probably post your playtimes, guild activity tend to bunch around a particular timeslot. Also, state your preference for a PVP/PVE server. Just a suggestion. If you're into PVP, and play on evenings in Pacific time, my Guild will take you in. We're small, but cool.

Ah. Well, the thing is...I really don't have set play times. Being in my last year of college (university), working, prepping for grad school, and having a lady friend tend to make it so that my schedule is never the same week to week.

However! I'm on the west coast, so a guild that operates from the Pacific time zone would be preferable - I've tried guilds that are in other zones, and I'm never online at the same time as anyone else. I guess my "normal" playtimes are evenings and weekends, but like I said, I'm never really sure what's going on or if ill need to be somewhere.

[Zherog]

been meaning to post this...

I love how they changed the quest achievements for zones, so that instead of "go do 125 quests" you have "go do these 6 story lines." I approve of this change...

[Karoht]

been meaning to post this...

I love how they changed the quest achievements for zones, so that instead of "go do 125 quests" you have "go do these 6 story lines." I approve of this change...

Agreed. It is a great example of a small aesthetic change which actually has a huge impact.
Great stuff.

[The Linker]

It also gives you that small bit of reassurance in "Oh, good, I've done everything there is to do here. On to the next area!"

[Hullabaloo]

@Pandarens and Pop Culture
*sigh*
Pandarens existed in WC3 as canon a solid 10 years before Dreamworks was even a studio, never mind releasing Kung Fu Panda. Just saying.

*Sigh*
Dreamworks was founded as a studio before Warcraft IOrcs & Humans was even released. Just saying.

[Karoht]

It also gives you that small bit of reassurance in "Oh, good, I've done everything there is to do here. On to the next area!"

It feels that slight bit better in the adventure sense.
"I've completed this storyline" feels better than a number counter going from 101/125 to 102/125

This weekend my goal is to level up my Warlock

@Hullabaloo
I admit my statement was far from correct. Only way to fix it? Get the facts!
Orcs and Humans released in 94, the same year that Dreamworks was officially founded according to wiki.
Warcraft 3 was released in 2003, Kung Fu Panda in 2008. Still a good 5 years ahead of the film release. If you want to get nitpicky, WC3 was in production before 2003, Kung Fu Panda began production in 2004.
Yay, I learned stuff today.

[Zherog]

It feels that slight bit better in the adventure sense.
"I've completed this storyline" feels better than a number counter going from 101/125 to 102/125

Yep, exactly this. I'm finding myself paying closer attention to the stories as I make my way through. My usual pattern is to get to max level quickly on my main, then take my time on my myriad other characters. In the past, that has meant read the quest objective, do it, turn it in, move on my first time through. I'm finding myself reading the text more, talking to NPCs when they have speech bubbles available, and so on.

Aside from that, smaller, finite chunks are (in my opinion, at least) better. For example, when achieves first hit, it was, "go do 700 quests in Kalimdor." Yikes - big number! Then after Cata, they took that big number and split it into a bunch of smaller numbers, one for each zone. That was improvement - smaller numbers, even if the aggregate up to the same total in the end, feel easier to achieve. Now, there's no numbers at all. Just quests tied to a hub. Do the hub and you see the progress with the little dialog box.

Related, I also like the "click this landmark, learn something about it and get part of an achievement" deal too. It encourages interaction with the world. The first few, I admit I clicked and closed them. Now I'm paying more attention. Good stuff.

Yay, I learned stuff today.

Always a good day when that happens.

[Traab]

Hey guys, do the horde get a handy dandy portal back to orgrimmar in the starting zone of pandaria? I only ask because my goblin warlock wants to respec, but I have no connected flight paths anywhere yet, and I havent noticed a portal. I have made it to the monkey camp and set up the base camp there, so if the portal just hasnt been opened yet, elt me know.

[Dublock]

Hey guys, do the horde get a handy dandy portal back to orgrimmar in the starting zone of pandaria? I only ask because my goblin warlock wants to respec, but I have no connected flight paths anywhere yet, and I havent noticed a portal. I have made it to the monkey camp and set up the base camp there, so if the portal just hasnt been opened yet, elt me know.

Yea you should have a portal to Org then. Its in Honeydew village which is the first village you encounter.

[Traab]

Yea you should have a portal to Org then. Its in Honeydew village which is the first village you encounter.

Awww pissfiddles. I gotta make a nice long jog then.

[Karoht]

Yep, exactly this. I'm finding myself paying closer attention to the stories as I make my way through. My usual pattern is to get to max level quickly on my main, then take my time on my myriad other characters. In the past, that has meant read the quest objective, do it, turn it in, move on my first time through. I'm finding myself reading the text more, talking to NPCs when they have speech bubbles available, and so on.

Aside from that, smaller, finite chunks are (in my opinion, at least) better. For example, when achieves first hit, it was, "go do 700 quests in Kalimdor." Yikes - big number! Then after Cata, they took that big number and split it into a bunch of smaller numbers, one for each zone. That was improvement - smaller numbers, even if the aggregate up to the same total in the end, feel easier to achieve. Now, there's no numbers at all. Just quests tied to a hub. Do the hub and you see the progress with the little dialog box.

Related, I also like the "click this landmark, learn something about it and get part of an achievement" deal too. It encourages interaction with the world. The first few, I admit I clicked and closed them. Now I'm paying more attention. Good stuff.

You can hit exalted with the Lorewalkers faction in under an hour by doing that, so long as you can fly and have all the flight points. You get some really cool story at the end for doing it, and a few achievements, and a perk or two. That flying disk mount comes from Lorewalkers.

[Alarra]

Yeah, I was initially reading all the quests and really taking in the lore, but I've had to stop that because our first raid is Sunday and I'm not 90 yet. Granted, I'm sure I won't be ready by Sunday anyway, or possibly even next week...darn moving. But once I get Astorya raiding, I'll go back and be much more thorough as I take my mage through.

I do really like the way they've changed the zone quest achievements though, I like that it encourages you to finish a storyline and an area before moving on.

[Karoht]

Yeah, I was initially reading all the quests and really taking in the lore, but I've had to stop that because our first raid is Sunday and I'm not 90 yet. Granted, I'm sure I won't be ready by Sunday anyway, or possibly even next week...darn moving. But once I get Astorya raiding, I'll go back and be much more thorough as I take my mage through.

I do really like the way they've changed the zone quest achievements though, I like that it encourages you to finish a storyline and an area before moving on.

Cross Realm Raids is a thing. What time? Want a healer?

[Dublock]

Cross Realm Raids is a thing. What time? Want a healer?

Not for current content though.

Blizzard said thats because they felt like if they let people do cross realm raiding, that is the last major thing for a guild to do.

I want them to change that -.-

[Karoht]

Not for current content though.

Blizzard said thats because they felt like if they let people do cross realm raiding, that is the last major thing for a guild to do.
I want them to change that -.-

Huh. I thought that was changed for Mists. I'ma go look that up later.
Because that makes me a sad panda.

[subanark]

So, finally got the guild geared enough for a raid (after a few of us tried it in pugs ealier). We had problems ealier in the week due to not announcing it clearly enough that we wanted to start raid.

Attempt 1: Hit berserk. At least people were mostly avoiding stuff
Attempt 2: Kill... although would have been berserk before they hotfixed it to extend the timer.

Drop: agi mail (we have an enh shaman). Int plate (we have no paladins).

We had 1 very good dps on that fight, while the rest were in the 30K-40K range (to be fair our top dps was a troll fire mage). The rest of the night was spent on Feng, and we managed to get him into phase 2, but we couldn't seem to get the mechanic to stun the boss working, so the healers spent a lot of mana and CDs getting us that far.

I'm back to healing role, due to 2 of our main healers being no show for MoP. We had a good chunk of people who rejoined at the end of cata who are now geared enough to help us.

I've been pretty lucky with gear drops, getting about 3 in lfr, 2 from sha, and I won an item with my bonus roll on the first boss of normal. That along with my valor gear, means I can't even take advantage of the holiday rings since they are all worse than my current lfr/valor ones.

I've only been doing dailies that unlock gear, so klaxxi and golden lotus are not being done since I hit revered. Tillers is being ignored as I'm exalted (except for the cooking token quest). 3 cooking specialties mastered, only 3 more to go. Might end up spending my spirit of harmonies on cooking tokens to get that bell (although maybe I'm better off just buying a bunch of meat to get tokens and just sell golden lotuses instead).

[Aidan305]

Yep, exactly this. I'm finding myself paying closer attention to the stories as I make my way through. My usual pattern is to get to max level quickly on my main, then take my time on my myriad other characters. In the past, that has meant read the quest objective, do it, turn it in, move on my first time through. I'm finding myself reading the text more, talking to NPCs when they have speech bubbles available, and so on.

I think that part of what helps with that is that so many of the NPCs in Pandaria have strong personalities. I find it much easier to feel with them and empathise with their various plights. In particular, the Valley of the Four Winds/Krasarang Wilds
Zone End Spoilers

Spoiler

Show

When, after completing the storylines in both zones you find yourself watching this massive wall crumbling before the oncoming might of the swarm, and as all hope seems lost, and the Shado-Pan are about to call the retreat, all the people that you've met and helped through your travels in the zones turn up with the big speech about how they won't let the village be taken because this is their home.

It was just perfect, and had me completely immersed in all the quests that followed.

[Karoht]

Might end up spending my spirit of harmonies on cooking tokens to get that bell (although maybe I'm better off just buying a bunch of meat to get tokens and just sell golden lotuses instead).

Buy Meat. Sell Lotus. One Lotus is probably enough to offset 10 stacks of meat or more.

So this morning, someone put up 30 Living Steel at about 600 bucks each. I highly doubt they are still on the market, but if they are by the time they get home, guess who's going to be stinking rich this tues/wednesday when the market goes back up?
Or, maybe I should find a blacksmith and turn them into Belt Buckles instead? Decisions, decisions.

[The_Jackal]

Do the buckles, is my advice. They'll hold their value over the living steel itself, which is going to steadily drop in price as more people raise their alchemists to the level cap and start getting a steady income of harmony from their gardens.