Monthly Archives: March 2008

Game Info

That's one in the kidneys for the Jewelcrafters…

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News just in; MMO-Champion reports that the price of all the factional recipes in 2.4 has increased significantly.

In most cases, it’s not a huge issue; it’s a matter of one or two patterns for most people going from, say, 2g to 15g. Huge jump, yeah, but not a big problem.

Jewelcrafters, on the other hand, get the shiv. All those epic patterns we have to load up on, now available from Shaani the Jewelcrafting vendor at various levels of Shattered Sun reputation? From 57g for the lot to 1900 gold. I am something akin to speechless.

As BBB would say, “lolwut?”

Game Info

The 2.4 Shopping List

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There’s a lot of new stuff coming in 2.4, some of which is so good I’m going to want to acquire it on patch day, or as soon as it becomes available (in the case of stuff requiring Shattered Sun faction, or access to the new badge vendor). So, here’s my shopping list:

  1. Jewelcrafting: [Figurine – Seaspray Albatross]. Requires 8 Eternium Bar, 2 Seaspray Emerald, 8 Primal Mana. (Got ’em all except the Emeralds.)
  2. Alchemy: [Redeemer’s Alchemist’s Stone]. Requires Alchemist’s Stone, 6 Primal Life, 2 Nether Vortex. (Got ’em all except 1 Vortex.)
  3. [Waistguard of Reparation]. Requires 75 Badges of Justice. (Got them.)
  4. [Greaves of Pacification]. Requires 100 Badges of Justice. (Got 53 of them.)
  5. [Ecclesiastical Cuirass]. Requires 100 Badges of Justice.
  6. [Anveena’s Touch]. Requires 60 Badges of Justice. (This is an awesome item, actually, and I should probably move it higher up the wishlist.)
  7. [Gavel of Naaru Blessings]. Requires 150 Badges of Justice. (A solid upgrade, but so expensive, so it can wait. Also, the S2 [Merciless Gladiator’s Salvation] just looks so much better!)

I’d really like to make myself an [Amulet of Flowing Life] and [Ring of Flowing Life] as well, but the patterns drop in Sunwell Plateau, so they’re going to cost a bomb.

So, that’s what I’m prepping for on patch day. What’s your shopping list?

Playstyle

Fake That Focus

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If you’re like me, you use the Focus target part of Blizzard’s interface a lot – you make a relevant player or mob your focus, display the focus frame on screen, and it allows easy retargeting (and watching for buffs, debuffs, CC breaking and so on). And, of course, you can use the [target=focus] option in macros to apply something to your focus without having to change targets, and some actionbar mods (eg Trinity Bars) even allow you to set an entire action bar of spells to apply to your focus. (Which makes one-click shielding, healing or CCing very easy, without having to retarget anything at all.)

However, I’ve often wished for two focus frames on screen, when I need to keep an eye on two heal targets at once, or a mob and a friendly, or whatever.

Presto! With a combination of macros, you can fake up a similar effect.

Targeting
Firstly, I use F1 to F5 as the default – targeting myself and my party members. I’ve set F6 to target my focus.

So, time for a new macro:

/target playername

(eg mine currently says “/target Everlight”, as Everlight was one of the two people I needed to throw healing at in the last boss fight I did)

Then either put that on an action bar and give it a hotkey, or use a mod that allows you to assign keybindings directly to macros (such as Trinity Bars, or SpellBinder). I gave it F7, to work nicely with F6 for the focus.

Unit Frames

I haven’t found a solution that allows you to put a new frame for a specific player or mob on your screen. If anyone finds one, let me know.

In the meantime, I’m just using the Blizzard Raid UI for this (crazy, I know) – I pull the frame for the specific target onto my playfield, and position it next to my existing focus frame.

Spell Targeting

Obviously, you can’t use a bar mod that points your spells at your focus target for this, and you can’t use [target=focus] in your macros – because this person isn’t your focus. However, you can use [target=playername] in a few key macros if you know you’re going to need to cast a spell on this person quickly without retargeting them first. “/cast [target=tankname] Lay On Hands”, perhaps, or “/cast [target=mobname] Polymorph” if you’re handling sheeping.

Edit, with thanks to Button of Button Mashing: in 2.3, Blizzard added a ‘targetexact’ macro option, which is case specific and handles targets with spaces in their name. So if you wanted to target, say, Shade of Aran using a macro like this, you could use either [target=shade] (but that would also risk targeting someone in your raid called ‘Shadeface’, for instance) or [targetexact=Shade of Aran]. In other words, targetexact is a good option when you have multiple mobs or people around with similar names.

The Upshot

As you can tell, it’s all a bit of a kludge – the Blizzard UI isn’t intended to let you have more than one focus target, so you have to mimic the elegant functionality of focus behaviour with a few specific macros. However, I’m still finding that it’s more helpful than not using it at all. It doesn’t work well on the fly, but if you know what you’re facing ahead of time, it can make a big difference.

If anyone comes up with any extensions of the concept, or better ways of executing it, I’m all ears!

Game Info

Holy Paladins: Choosing Your Professions

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So, trying to work out what professions to level with your Holy paladin? Here’s a quick rundown of professions that are useful, focusing on endgame play. You’ll note that unlike some classes, healadins have no “obvious” choices – if you’re a clothie, you’re crazy not to take tailoring, for instance, but there’s no similar gimme for pallies. So let’s take a look:

(I’ll be focusing on crafting rewards that require a specific profession. Anything BoE or usable by anyone can be acquired elsewhere: from alts, guildmates or the Auction House.)

Herb Gathering, Mining and Skinning
These are “wasted” on a main. I believe you’re far better off taking two ‘production’ professions on your main, where you’re likely to have access to more BoP recipes and rep gains (for factional recipes). Keep the gathering professions on an alt or buy your mats from the AH. (Caveat: there is one advantage of gathering on a main – an epic mount.)

Alchemy
Alchemy offers two alchemist-only rewards:

  • [Mad Alchemist’s Potion] is a nice Alchemist-only variant of the [Super Rejuvenation Potion], with cheaper mats and free random buff effects to boot. However, it’s not essential – most healadins are going to be sucking back [Super Mana Potion]s, which offer a greater mana return. All the Mad Alchemist’s Potion really gives you is a discount on mats.
  • [Alchemist’s Stone] is a nice little trinket that’s worth using for fights where you’re chain-chugging mana pots. (Watch for an upcoming post talking about the Alchemist’s Stone in more depth.) Definitely worth using for some fights, but not all – probably not a reason to take the profession by itself, but a definite attraction. Upgradeable in 2.4 to a trinket with the same potion-boosting effect and +115 heal on it, which is very solid, but no details on the source of the pattern. (Update:according to MMO-Champion, the pattern for the trinket update is at Shattered Sun Exalted.)

Verdict: not a bad profession for supplying your own consumables, but not compelling.

Blacksmithing
Blacksmithing is not worth it, in my opinion. There are a few Blacksmith-specific items, but not enough to be worth taking the whole profession:

  • The Khorium Ward is a decent blue BoE spelldamage plate set for the shockadin crowd; the items themselves don’t require Blacksmithing to equip, but the 3-piece set bonus (+55 Healing) does.
  • [Dawnsteel Shoulders] are BoP shoulders; the pattern drops in Black Temple. They’re a spellhaste alternative to Tier 6 shoulders – very tasty, but not really relevant to a healadin until you’re well into endgame content.
  • [Sunblessed Breastplate] is a BoP chest; the plans drop in Sunwell Plateau. Same situation as the shoulders – a great item, but you’re really not going to be picking a profession at or before 70 based on one or two items from Black Temple and Sunwell Plateau.

Verdict: it might be worth levelling once you’re already in BT or Sunwell Plateau, but until then, don’t bother.

Enchanting
There’s only one enchanter-only type of enchant: rings.

Verdict: +40 healing is a pretty nice boost from a single profession. Enchanting has tradtionally been the realm of clothies, but it’s actually not a bad healadin choice simply for the ring enchants.

Engineering
Engineering is full of engineer-specific and crafter-only stuff, and a lot of it is fun and useful; I’m not going to cover all of that here. Looking at healadin-relevant options:

  • [Justicebringer 2000 Specs] – better than Tier 5, worse than Tier 6, these are a huge item for a healadin pally pre-Black Temple. They require a reasonable amount of farming, but nothing particularly hard-to-get. Very hard to go past.
  • [Justicebringer 3000 Specs] – the upgraded version, coming with patch 2.4. Even better than the previous helm, but the pattern doesn’t drop until Sunwell Plateau, so it’s not really a justification for decision-making. (Though the pattern may be BoE; if so, hello AH!)

Verdict: A very strong single item, plus a whole bunch of useful fun stuff. Definitely a solid choice.

Jewelcrafting
Jewelcrafting has a few choices in the early-70 period, although its advantages drop off later:

  • [Kailee’s Rose] is a great healing gem, although you can only equip one at a time; it’s superior even to the BoE epic equivalent (Teardrop Crimson Spinel).
  • [Talasite Owl] is a good healer trinket for those who want mana regen. (Including the “use” effect, it’s roughly the equivalent of 29 mp5.)
  • The upgraded version, [Seaspray Albatross], has more costly mats but is significantly better – with a shorter cooldown, it’s 43 mp5 to the Owl’s 29. (I’ll definitely be making one as soon as I hit Revered with Shattered Sun, from whence cometh the pattern.)
  • [Amulet of Flowing Life] is a nice spell haste healing neckpiece, coming in Patch 2.4. The mats are reasonably accessible, but the pattern doesn’t drop until Sunwell Plateau. (However, it may be a BoE pattern; if so, you can AH it regardless of where you’re raiding.)

Verdict: No single big-ticket winner like Engineering or Enchanting, but a lot of moderate-sized advantages that add up.

Leatherworking
Leatherworking’s only really of interest if you’re prepared to downgrade to mail or leather armor in a number of key slots. Some paladins do, some don’t. I’ll only look at mail here, since if you’re going lower than mail you may as well roll a druid or priest.

  • There’s a lot of nice spell DPS mail that would suit a shockadin nicely; I’m not going to link it all here, but it’s definitely a good option for someone making a serious go of shockadin.
  • [Living Earth Shoulders], some very nice healing mail shoulders. The pattern is a BoE drop from trash in Black Temple. However, they’re not significantly better than the plate equivalents from Blacksmithing, so if you’re taking a profession solely for this, you may as well go the Blacksmithing route and not sacrifice survivability for it.

Verdict: not worth it, unless you’re more interested in being a shockadin (which is not particularly viable against bosses thanks to a lack of spell hit and a huge lack of mana return).

Tailoring
I’m not going to advocate this; there are some very good tailor-only healing pieces (such as the Primal Mooncloth set), but the loss of survivability is just too great for my liking. Those who want to do this know the items they’re aiming for anyway.

The Verdict

Winners:
Enchanting: one significant advantage and the utility value of self-enchanting and disenchanting. Definitely worth considering.
Engineering: one awesome item and a bunch of fun toys. A clear winner.
Jewelcrafting: one good trinket, one decent gem, and general crafting utility value. A viable option.

Maybes:
Alchemy: nice for the trinket, but it’s not compelling.
Blacksmithing: probably not worth it, given that the good BoP healadin items are deep into raiding territory, at which point you have other options.

Losers:
Leatherworking: No unique advantage compared with Blacksmithing.
Tailoring: it’s cloth. C’mon, roll a priest.

By the numbers, I would say the pure best choices for a healadin would be Engineering plus either Jewelcrafting or Enchanting. Enchanting maintains its value throughout the endgame, while Engineering and Jewelcrafting wax and wane in utility depending on the level of other gear you have access to.

Speaking personally, I have Jewelcrafting and Alchemy – the Alchemy is just a legacy of the pre-TBC era, when my guild was very short on alchemists. I’m unlikely to change things at this late date (although I rather wish I’d made this analysis six months ago), but come Wrath of the Lich King, I’ll be investigating all the professions for their suitability.

Game Info

Epic Gems For Everyone!

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MMO-Champion has just reported that one of the Shattered Sun NPCs on the Isle of Quel’Danas (Shaani, the Jewelcrafting Supplies vendor in the Sun’s Reach Harbor) will now sell all the raw epic gems for 15 badges.

Know your leylines!
Image from MMO-Champion.

Very interesting.

These gems are currently only available in Mount Hyjal (mined from gem nodes after the first or second boss) or Black Temple (from trash mobs). They sell for hundreds of gold on a typical Auction House. 2.4 was already going to reduce their value, by virtue of giving away a bagful of them with a number of pre-MH boss kills – Magtheridon will drop a bag of 3 of them, for instance.

However, selling them for badges means that almost everyone, except the truly solo player, can expect to get their hands on them – although not necessarily straight away, when you consider the fact that most people will want to lay out hundreds of badges on the new Tier 6-equivalent gear as well.

Furthermore, most of the recipes to cut them currently require Mount Hyjal faction, and the remaining recipes are BoP drops in Black Temple. All the existing epic gem cuts will now be accessible via Shattered Sun faction from Friendly to Exalted.

I’m very happy with these two changes. Anyone who knows me has heard me rant about how unreasonable it was of Blizzard to put the entire epic tier of a crafting profession in the hands of endgame raiders alone – I’m glad Blizzard’s doing something about that.

Now I can only hope that 25-man bosses will drop a reasonable number of badges, come 2.4, or we’re all going to be so starved for badges we’ll still be running Karazhan in 2009.

Meta

PTR For Me!

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Thankfully, after the most recent patch, the PTR is playable again – with all mods loaded and graphic effects at maximum, the framerate is still decent.

Unfortunately, I missed a lot of the Shattered Sun daily content; all the phases are now open. I’ll still do an overall guide to the SSO dailies, and I hope to have it ready for 2.4’s release, but it’ll take a bit more research than just logging onto the PTR and reading the quest text. So, expect the 2.4 updates to be a bit sparser from now on, as all the dynamic content finished up while the PTR was still unplayable for me.

A shame – but I sitll have it to look forward to on live.

Game Info

Holy Paladins: Choosing Your Faction Goals

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There are a number of very good rep rewards available for paladins, particularly Protection and Holy paladins. I thought I’d do a bit of a rundown for those who are levelling a pally and haven’t identified their faction goals yet. If you’re a holy paladin in pre-raid gear, you might want to aim for:

Honor Hold/Thrallmar – Revered.
For Ring of Convalescence/Ancestral Band and Glyph of Renewal at Revered. (Sage’s Band/Farseer’s Band at Honored is a nice addition to your DPS set, too.)

Cenarion Expedition
You can actually skip CE faction if you’re purely Holy, unless you want Windcaller’s Orb (at Exalted) until you get a good healing shield. I wouldn’t recommend it personally – but hey, some pallies wear cloth, too.

Sporeggar
Nothing for you here.

Aldor/Scryers – Exalted.
For Greater Inscription of Faith (for Aldor) or Greater Inscription of the Oracle (for Scryers) at Exalted. (You can use Inscription of Faith/Inscription of the Oracle (Honored) until you hit Exalted.) Aldor also offers Vindicator’s Hauberk (the best pre-raid tanking chest) at Revered, and Medallion of the Lightbearer at Exalted (although there are better-balanced pre-raid neckpieces out there, this one does have good base stats). Scryer-aligned paladins can get Seer’s Signet at Exalted, which is very good for a shockadin set.

Lower City – Revered.
For Lower City Prayerbook, an excellent trinket for paladins that many prefer over epic alternatives. Gavel of Unearthed Secrets at Exalted is a good shockadin mace, too, and if you’re building a tanking set it’s the best tankadin mace you’ll find until raid or arena gear.

Kurenai/Mag’har
You can pretty much skip Kurenai/Mag’har faction altogether, from a paladin point of view.

The Consortium
You can skip this one, too.

Keepers of Time
For a pure Holy pally, you can skip KoT faction too. If you’re going to be doing some tanking, I’d recommend aiming for Revered for Timewarden’s Leggings and Glyph of the Defender (and Continuum Blade until you get to Exalted with Lower City for the Gavel).

The Sha’tar – Exalted
For Gavel of Pure Light, an excellent healadin mace (I got a Hand of Eternity crafted before I got to Exalted Sha’tar, but the Gavel of Pure Light isn’t far behind it). You might also want Crest of the Sha’tar (Exalted) for a tanking set, and Xi’ri’s Gift (Revered) for a shockadin set.

Ogri’la – Revered
For Apexis Cloak. Ogri’la Aegis (Revered) is a good tanking shield before you hit Exalted Sha’tar, too.

Sha’tari Skyguard
You can skip this as a healadin. Airman’s Ribbon of Gallantry (Exalted) is a decent shockadin trinket, though, when you consider the fact that you’re likely to be playing as a shockadin for solo content only – grinding and questing.

Netherwing
You can skip this too. Commander’s Badge (Revered) is a nice tanking trinket, though.

Shattered Sun Offensive – Exalted (New in 2.4!)
For Shattered Sun Pendant of Restoration, which is an amazingly good pre-raid healing neck. Shattered Sun Pendant of Acumen (Exalted) is also good for a shockadin set, and Sunward Crest (Exalted) may suit tanking pallies for threat generation.