World of Saz

Patch 5.3 Primer for Enhancement

2013-05-21T03:08:00.000-05:00

Patch 5.3 is upon us! With this patch we will see several buffs to our damage and a couple of quality of life changes to boot. While these changes may not address things such as the long ramp up time for our AoE damage, they should bring our overall damage up enough to make us more competitive with other classes/specs in Throne of Thunder.

* Lightning Bolt can now be cast while moving.
The effects of the Glyph of Unleashed Lightning (a glyph that has been revamped; we'll get to that) has been baked into the shaman toolkit, minus the increase in Lightning Bolt's cast time. What does this mean to Enhance? Not a whole lot really. This will be handy in those situations where we're on the move and may not have a full Maelstrom stack available. For high movement encounters, this change may yield a minor DPS increase for us.

* Glyph of Lightning Shield (previously Glyph of Unleashed Lightning) will reduce damage taken by 10% for 6 seconds after Lightning Shield is triggered.
At first glance it seems like this glyph could potentially become a "must have" item for both PvP and progression raiding alike. However as it stands now, it is not triggered by Static Shock, which means that in order to receive the damage reduction effects, we must receive some sort of damage (spell, melee, or ranged attack, according to Lightning Shield's tooltip) before we receive the 10% damage reduction. This pretty much means that Glyph of Lightning Shield is reactive, versus proactive.

Bottom line, unless you're receiving some sort of semi-consistent direct damage, this glyph may not be worth a slot. Of course this glyph can have its uses, but it'll be very dependent upon the situations you find yourself in. Personally, I think I'll love this one for soloing.

* Feral Spirit: The summoned Spirit Wolves are now immune to movement impairing (root and snare) effects.
This change seems to be more of a quality of life change for PvP, though there are some situations in PvE where roots/snares occur. Though we may get stuck to the floor, our pups will still be able to chase down whatever it is that we're attacking, keeping up the damage pressure and giving us some passive healing in the process.

*Lava Lash now deals 300% weapon damage, up from 250%.
Single target damage buff? I'll take it!

*Stormstrike now deals 450% weapon damage, up from 375%.
Another nice buff to our single target damage. No complaints here.

*Mental Quickness now coverts 65% of the shaman's attack power to spell power, up from 55%.
This is a little buff that will effect a number of different aspects of both our damage and utility toolkits. Without going into heavy details, this change should slightly boost our AoE damage output, increase shock damage just a touch, and will also bring up healing throughput just a smidge.

That about covers it, barring any hotfixes. Now get on out there, swing those weapons, and enjoy the buffs!

Enhanced Macro Mania!

2013-04-19T06:41:00.000-05:00

Those of you who follow me on Twitter/Facebook may recall my geekery over discovering some new ways in which I could macro a few spells together. You may have also recalled that I had promised a post on it. While I meant to make good on that promise, life/laziness managed to get in the way, yada yada. Anyways, here's that said post! Finally /cheer!

I am by nature not a huge macro person. For the longest time my macro stash only consisted of Ventrilo information macros and weird /say macros. Once I discovered how well my Synapse Springs lined up with Feral Spirits, I made a cheap macro to put those two abilities together. For the longest time, that is to say until a month ago, that is all I had. That is, until last month when I had the noob revelation about exactly how many of enhancement's cooldown abilities are actually off the global cooldown. Ladies and gents, this somewhat opened up the flood gates on my tiny stream of macro knowledge.

For my macros I have omitted the #showtooltip line, since I have the habit of using an icon of my choosing anyways and rarely have tooltips themselves showing. Please feel free to add #showtooltip to the beginning of your macros if you're not an oddball such as myself.

~Feral Spirit Macro~
Engineers

/use 10
/use Blood Fury
/cast Feral Spirit

Things to be aware of:
1) The '/use 10' portion activates your Synapse Springs on your gloves, 1 min cd.
2) Blood Fury is an Orc racial, omit if you are not an Orc. 2 min cd.
3) Two of the three potential abilities in this particular macro are on a 2 min cd, minus Synapse Springs. Not using your Springs as soon as they come off cooldown will slightly desynchronize the tooltip cooldown timer, as it will only show the cd time of your Springs, not your Lifeblood/Blood Fury/Feral Spirits.

OR

Herbalists

/cast Lifeblood
/use Blood Fury
/cast Feral Spirit

Things to be aware of:
1) Blood Fury is an Orc racial, omit if you are not an Orc. 2 min cd.
2) All three abilities are on a 2 min cd. Hooray for less tracking!

OR

Engineering Herbalists

/use 10
/cast Lifeblood
/use Blood Fury
/cast Feral Spirit

Things to be aware of:
1) The '/use 10' portion activates your Synapse Springs on your gloves, 1 min cd.
2) Blood Fury is an Orc racial, omit if you are not an Orc. 2 min cd.
3) Everything in this particular macro is on a 2 min cd, minus Synapse Springs. Not using your Springs as soon as they come off cooldown will slightly desynchronize the tooltip cooldown timer, as it will only show the cd time of your Springs, not your Lifeblood/Blood Fury/Feral Spirits.

~Ascendance Macro~

/cast Elemental Mastery
/cast Berserking
/cast Ascendance
/cast Fire Elemental Totem

Things to be aware of:
1) Elemental Mastery is up every 1.5 minutes. Assuming that you're able to use it on cooldown, it should line up perfectly with everything else in the list (which have 3 minute cds) every other use of this macro.
2) Berserking is a Troll racial, omit if you are not a Troll.
3) Your Fire Elemental Totem will only line up with Berserking/Ascendance the second time you go to use it if it's glyphed. Our Fire Elemental is generally a 5 minute cooldown, though with the Glyph of Fire Elemental we can bring that cd down to 3 minutes. The glyph is only recommended for those specced into Primal Elementalist.

Ascendance Alternative

/cast Ascendance
/cast Berserking
/cast Elemental Mastery
/cast Fire Elemental Totem

Alternatively, if you'd like to use this macro for openers (as I tend to do) but are not always specced into Elemental Mastery, you can list Elemental Mastery after Ascendance so that the tooltip timer will still show the cd of Ascendance. Just be sure you have some sort of tracking that will alert you as to when Elemental Mastery comes off of cooldown so that you may gain its benefit.

Alternatively alternatively, you may use the original macro, but place this in the first line of the macro: #showtooltip whateverspellyouwanthere

~The 'I Win' Macro~

/cast Bloodlust
/cast Berserking
/cast Blood Fury
/cast Lifeblood
/cast Elemental Mastery
/cast Ascendance
/cast Fire Elemental Totem

Things to be aware of:
1) If you're Alliance, the first line of this macro should say /cast Heroism
2) If you're a Troll, omit /cast Blood Fury. If you're an Orc, omit /cast Berserking. If you're neither of those races, omit both of those lines!
3) /cast Lifeblood is for Herbalists only. If you're not an herbalizor, remove that line!

The 'I Win' macro is my new BFF when it comes to soloing, especially since many soloing situations for enhancement tend to be a race to kill the thing before it kills you. This macro may also be used as an opener in those raiding situations where you're popping Hero/Lust right off the bat and you'd like to set yourself up for some mad burst (why wouldn't you?!).

For my openers: I tend to prepot (using a potion before entering combat), use my Feral Spirits macro, then either use my Ascendance Macro (depending on raid opener situations) or my 'I Win' macro (depending on what I'm doing). Stormlash Totem is dropped just as I hit the boss.

In the event you have on-use trinkets, place them in the spots in these macros where Synapse Springs would be IF, and only IF, the on-use is stronger than the buff that Synapse Springs provide. Synapse Springs will trigger a short cd on your on-use trinkets and vise versa, hence the need to potential macro things a bit differently. If your Springs still provide the superior buff, use your trinkets as they become available and/or in conjunction with other CDs that line up with them, assuming that your Springs don't also line up with said abilities. Place '/use 13' into your macro for the top on-use trinket, '/use 14' is for the bottom trinket.

Please keep in mind that the macros mentioned here are not perfect for all situations. You will need to use these macros intelligently and be somewhat flexible with them. These are meant to be aids in helping you to maximize your burst damage, however they may not always be applicable depending on the encounter you're facing.

Also be aware that if you have quick, twitchy fingers as I do, you may sometimes find that only half of the spells in these macros actually go off. The easiest solution? Hold the button down momentarily. It doesn't need to be some 5 second long press of the button, but actually click/press/however you activate your macro button long enough for the program to register everything you're asking of it in your macro. Quick taps just don't cut it!

There you have it, all of the nuggets of insight I gained a month ago! I swear, I feel like I should have thought of these things an expansion or two ago. Just goes to show, even an old ghost wolf can learn new tricks sometimes.

Enhancement Shaman - Need To Know 5.2

2013-03-15T04:09:00.001-05:00

For those of you who are actively playing or paying attention to World of Warcraft, you're probably aware by now that patch 5.2 has thundered its way into Azeroth. With its arrival, a few new changes have come into play for nearly every class and specialization. Enhancement shaman is no exception.

Please note that if you've been using my old Need To Know post, the information found in there is still relevant for a fresh level 90. The purpose of this particular post is to expand upon the new talent tweaks and how they may interact with gear from Throne of Thunder.. If you're a fresh level 90 and/or just returning from the spirit realm (aka if you haven't played your shaman since Cataclysm) I highly suggest going back and reading my Need To Know post linked in this paragraph.

Talent Tweaks
As has been noted in the 5.2 Changes for Shaman post, several talent tweaks have been made. With these adjustments in mind, the following is more or less how we should think about our talent choices.

Tier 4
Elemental Mastery - Best used in burst situations and becomes more valuable during fights where our damage uptime may be a bit low (numerous target switches that cause downtime; controlled dps situations such as Titan Gas phase on LFR/Reg Will of the Emperor, or the no add lull on H-Will of the Emperor)

Ancestral Swiftness - Best for static (Patchwerk) fights. The higher uptime on a boss, the more this talent shines. Used mostly with haste builds, which will become more widely used once one acquires the legendary meta gem, along with trinkets from Throne of Thunder.

Echo of the Elements - Still the best talent choice for those who are leveling, as it can proc extra healing. Also a very solid choice for soloing in my personal opinion, again due to the chance for extra "free" healing. For competitive raiding, this talent is best when paired with mastery stacking and will shine more during AoE/cleave encounters.

Tier 6
Unleashed Fury - This talent received a slight nerf in this patch to help bring it more in line with our other two talent choices, but the nerf bat wasn't too harsh. For those of you who are still fresh level 90s/sporting t14 gear, this will still be your best overall talent choice. With this particular talent, it seems that mastery will still be your favored secondary stat.

Primal Elementalist - PE received a pretty decent buff in this patch to help it compete with Unleashed Fury. Our elementals now provide some fairly substantial burst (they did a good bit before as well, but now it's really solid), enough to the point where they'll make up for the lack of damage during their down times. This talent is my personal favorite for soloing, but unfortunately may not be the best choice for general raiding purposes until you have acquired your Capacitive Primal Diamond, plus have gotten your mits on Talisman of Bloodlust and Bad Juju. This talent *could* be useful on controlled burst fights even with current gear, however. This is of course assuming that phases of whichever encounter you're tackling line up properly with the CDs of your totems.

Elemental Blast - Like Primal Elementalist, Elemental Blast has received some love to help make it a more enticing talent to take as Enhancement. In addition to proccing extra secondary stats, EB will also proc Agility for us. Pretty neat, eh? As it stands right now though, EB is still a touch behind the other two talent choices. It's viable for use, don't get me wrong, but it is still slightly behind. Couple this minor negative with the fact that it still has a cast time (which can be negated if you have a Maelstrom Weapon stack of x5, but if you don't you'll be hardcasting), that you'll have yet another button in your already button-heavy arsenal, AND you'll have another minor CD to watch (12 seconds, so not all that different from our other rotational CDs like Lava Lash and Stormstrike), EB still remains to be a less than desirable talent for most shaman. Essentially it complicates an already somewhat hectic rotation for no actual DPS gain over the other two talents. However, if you're a diehard fan of this talent for whatever reason, you still may choose to spec into EB and not have the fear of severely gimping yourself on the meters.

Talent Choices, Secondary Stats, and You
One of the more common questions I see coming from fellow Enhancement shaman is thus:

I'm ilvl 461. How should I gem/reforge? How do I spec?

The common answer is often "Well, you're going to have to sim it." This answer is unfortunately both completely true, but can also be rather frustrating to someone who isn't familiar with either theorycrafting or the program Simulation Craft itself. The fact of the matter is, two Enhancement shaman may both have an ilvl of 461, but they could very well have a large variation in stats. One may be really heavy in Critical Strike, while the other could be Mastery heavy. A third shaman may very well have a balance of all three non-mandatory secondary stats, but is starving for things such as Hit and Expertise. Early on in the gearing process, Critical Strike can actually outweigh Mastery and Haste, because of how the synergy between the different stats works out. As you gain more gear though, Crit tends to depreciate in value, making way for the power houses that are Mastery and Haste.

Bottom line, if you're looking to min/max your shaman to the greatest extent, you will need to learn how to run Simulation Craft, aka SimC. Luckily for you, Poneria did up a post on WoW Insider about Simulation Craft. Don't balk at the fact that it's actually a warlock post; there is a ton of excellent information and links in that post to help get you started with SimC. It's a definite must-read for those who wish to push themselves a bit further.

For those of you wishing to merely get by without having to dip your toes into the wacky world of theorycrafting, there is are a few rules of thumb that you can follow to make yourself at least competitive in regards in how to gem, reforge, and spec your Enhancement shaman.

Leveling
Gems: You can stick with whatever gems you had in your level 85 gear. Most leveling gear is socketless, so you don't need to worry about this much.

Reforging: Not necessarily something you need to worry about much. You want at least some hit and expertise to make life a bit easier for you; more mastery while leveling is quite handy.

Speccing: As far as the DPS talents are concerned, Echo of the Elements (for those wonderful double Healing Surge procs) and once you hit 90, Unleashed Fury will be your best bets. All other talents are more based on preference and situation.

Fresh Level 90s
Gems: Delicate (pure Agility gems) in red sockets, Adept (orange gems, Agility/Mastery gems) in yellow sockets, Deft (purple gems, Agility/Hit gems) for purple sockets.

Reforging: You must first shoot for your Hit/Expertise caps, if possible. If you need to, you can help supplement this with Hit and Expertise enchants. For secondaries, it'll be, as I said, a bit of a toss up depending on what stats your particular gear setup actually has. I personally went Mastery > Crit > Haste on my second shaman while I was working on getting the rest of her heroic 5 man set.

Speccing: For those of you heading into those 5 mans, Echo and UF will still be great choices, since you'll more than likely be putting priority on Mastery, plus the extra chance at AoE procs from Echo (Fire Nova can proc echos) will help out nicely for all of those trash packs.

Tier 14
Gems: As with the fresh level 90s, you'll still be going for straight Agility gems, Agility/Mastery gems, and Agility/Hit gems.

Reforging: Once I started getting a decent base of crit and stopped starving for so much Hit/Expertise on my second shaman (meaning, I was starting to get purples) my priority changed over to Mastery>=Haste>Crit. You'll want to have a healthy balance of Mastery and Haste, as they're both excellent stats to have. I tend to go a bit heavier into Mastery for this particular tier though, especially with often still being specced into Echo+UF.

Speccing: With the new changes, speccing for raiding becomes rather situational. For your level 60 choice, see the Talent Tweaks section earlier on in this post. For the most part though, Unleashed Fury will be your level 90 talent of choice.

Tier 15
This is were things start to get nice and murky as far as secondary stats are concerned. Until you get your hands on the new RPPM* trinkets (Talisman of Bloodlust, Bad Juju, Renataki's Soul Charm, and Rune of Re-Origination are specifically being considered for BiS lists, see this thread for more info), you'll be speccing and reforging just as you had for tier 14. However, the game changes some once you get said RPPM and your legendary meta. Suddenly, with these items, Haste becomes a pretty big thing.

Gems: For those in LFR/Normal mode t15 gear with RPPM trinkets, you'll be most likely going with pure Agility gems, Agility/HASTE gems, and Agility/Mastery gems. If you do not have the RPPM trinkets, the t14 scheme will still be more ideal.

**Note: There is a slight possibility that we may even gemming straight Haste with the new trinkets + legendary meta gem + BiS Heroic Throne of Thunder gear. Theorycrafters are still working out the details on this, as the RPPM trinkets are still being tweaked, but the future possibility is there. **

Reforging: Again, once you get your RPPM trinkets, Haste will take a priority over Mastery. It'll more than likely be a reforge priority of Hit/Expertise | Haste > Mastery > Crit.

Speccing: This follows suit with t14 until you get, you guessed it, the RPPM trinkets. Once you do, your level 90 talent of choice will often be Primal Elementalist. There may be certain situations where UF may still be better, but with all of the Haste procs and stacking going on, PE becomes a delicious source of damage. The level 60 talent choices will be very encounter-based still, so please refer to the Talent Tweaks section of this post for more information.

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Please keep in mind that this is an extremely rough and broad guide. Your stat change over points may slightly differ depending on which trinkets you have, which set bonuses you manage to activate, and of course may depend a bit on whether or not you have acquired your legendary meta.

Also keep in mind that each of the three level 90 talents have a slightly different rotation priority. To find out more about that, I highly suggest you read up on the Ability/Rotation section of the Enhancement Guide over on Totemspot.

If you're looking for a Throne of Thunder shopping list, you'll want to keep your eyes on the Enhancement Best in Slot List for Tier 15 thread, which can also be found over on Totemspot. Keep in mind that the list is subject to change, as the TC guys are still working on simming out all of the possibilities, plus Blizzard is still tweaking trinket procs and the like.

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The long and short of this post is thus: 5.2 has moved us away from what was nearly a cut-and-dry spec set up as far as our DPS talent choices were concerned, and dumped us into the realm of situational choice. Everything - your gemming scheme, spec choices, and reforges - is dependent upon your particular gear set up and raid encounter situation. From a min/maxer's stand point, this kind of makes things both chaotic and interesting. From the view point of someone more casual, this simply means you have a bit more leeway in choosing how to play.

The difference between talents is rather small now, so you very well could simply choose a combination of talents that you like the feel of and still be rather competitive. If you're not trying to eek out every last drop of damage from your character, you have plenty of room to experiment with. Personally I've been playing around with a high-burst build on my main shaman for soloing situations (it's pretty damn awesome, I'll tell you what!). Would I use my current build in a current raiding situation? Hell no, since I know I don't have an optimal gear set up to make my EM/PE + Haste stacking as competitive in damage as say, being a tad more Mastery heavy and rocking AS (or whatever talent depending on encounter)/UF. Since I'm not raiding for the moment though, it's very fun to toy around with. Sometimes experimenting to see how far your gear can take you in certain scenarios is a very fun thing to do, or perhaps I'm too much of an Enhancement/soloing nerd for my own good.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns about this topic or anything else shaman related, please don't be shy!

*For those of you who are confused as to what RPPM means, it stands for Real Procs Per Minute. This is essentially the internal system that's in place that determines how certain trinkets and enchants proc. If you want to read up on some of the nitty gritty details of this system, you should check out this series of blue posts.

5.2 Changes for Shaman

2013-03-08T00:56:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone and welcome to a new patch! For those of you who were wondering, enhancement hasn't changed a whole lot with the implementation of 5.2. There have been several tweaks made to both our spec and the class overall though, so we're going to take a dive into those changes in this post. Now, if you're looking for a complete list of patch notes complete with spell links/tooltips, I suggest heading on over to Wowhead.

Spells
Chain Lightning will now deal the same damage to subsequent targets as it does to the first.
- Stronger AoE for elemental shamans and better cleaves for enhancement? I'll take it!

Lava Beam's damage now increases with jumps. Each jump increases the damage by 10%.
- Lava Beam is Chain Lightning for elemental shaman in their Ascendance form. Stronger AoE for them? I approve.

Shamanistic Rage is now available to Elemental Shamans as well as Enhancement Shamans.
- Giving another survivability tool to our elemental brothers and sisters is a good thing. I know when I was specced elemental on my second shaman, I was always looking for this cooldown! Glad to see both DPS specs with this ability now.

Flame Shock's duration has been increased by 25%.
- In 5.1 we needed to use Glyph of Flame Shock in order to extend FS's duration by 25% at the cost of some initial damage. With this glyph being reworked (see Glyphs below) Blizz has decided to make the extended duration a permanent thing. An excellent change, in my opinion.

Lava Burst base damage has been reduced by 33% but now always deals a critical strike. When cast on targets affected by Flame Shock, it now deals 50% more damage.
- Another tweak aimed at our elemental brothers and sisters. It's nice to see Lava Burst always crit now, and perhaps the increase in damage will help bring their over all damage up a bit. Not completely sure on the math on that one though, so be sure to check on the theorycrafting work done by Binkenstein and friends over on Totem Spot.

When summoned, the Stone Bulwark Totem has health equal to 10% of the casting Shaman's health.
- This was mainly a PvP buff to make it so that players couldn't simply 1-shot our shielding totem.

Talents
The talent Nature's Guardian now preserves the player's health percentage when its maximum health boosting effect expires.
- This talent increases your health pool. Originally when this was implemented, if you were at say, 97% health when the buff expired, your health percentage would drop. Now when the buff from this talent expires, your health will remain at the example health of 97%.

Stone Bulwark Totem now absorbs 25% more damage.
- More absorbs mean less damage taken! This is a decent little buff from both PvE and PvP perspectives.

The talent Totemic Restoration now has an additional effect. Any totems that have been destroyed or replaced behave as if the totem had been active for at least 1 second.
- You got me. I'm assuming that this is an adjustment or fix for some sort of unintended behavior from replacing totems too quickly (fat fingering something and instantly replacing it with another totem of another school perhaps, not resetting the original totem as intended?), but as to what that is specifically, I'm unsure.

Elemental Mastery now has a 90-second cooldown (was 2 minutes).
- This change actually makes Elemental Mastery attractive to enhancement in certain situations. By lowering the cooldown to 90 seconds, we can line up every other EM usage with Ascendance, creating some delicious burst situations.

Ancestral Swiftness now increases spell haste by 5% and melee haste by 10% (was 5%/5%).
- This buff makes Ancestral Swiftness viable for use in more static situations. The theorycrafters are still working on the numbers, but this may be the talent of choice for this tier with certain t15 trinkets + the legendary meta gem. More on this later in the 5.2 enhancement Need To Know guide.

Conductivity no longer requires that the target be within the area of effect of Healing Rain.
- To my understanding this means that if you heal someone outside of the Healing Rain, those IN the Healing Rain gain the healing effect. Say for example, you're taking on Feng in Mogu'shan Vaults. Ranged are stacked up in the middle, you place Healing Rain on the ranged. You directly heal the tank, which is over on the side with the boss. Those within your rain get 30% of the direct heal you just landed on the tank. This adjustment was made to make this talent a bit more appealing and slightly less situation bound.

Conductivity now shares 30% (was 20%) of the healing received from Healing Wave, Greater Healing Wave, or Healing Surge
- A buff to help make this particular talent choice a bit more appealing.

Ancestral Guidance now copies 60% (was 40%) of the amount healed.
- While this buff to the healing portion of AG can be applied towards elemental and enhancement shaman, this is mainly geared towards restoration to make this talent choice more appealing to them. For the most part, us elementals and enhancers don't tend to heal while we pop AG, unless we're soloing and near death.

Unleashed Fury Flametongue now increases Lightning Bolt damage by 20% (was 30%), and Lava Burst damage by 10%.
- This tweak is a buff for elemental shaman to make this talent more appealing to them, and a minor nerf for us enhancement shaman, bringing it slightly more in line with the other two talent choices for this tier.

Primal Earth Elemental and Primal Fire Elemental now deal 20% more damage.
- The buff for the primal versions of our elementals (via the Primal Elementalist talent) is meant to make this talent more attractive for us DPS-type shaman.

Elemental Blast now has a chance to increase the caster's Agility for Enhancement Shamans.
- This change is a buff is intended to be a buff/addition geared towards enhancement shaman. The verdict is still out as to whether or not this change is enough to make this particular talent appealing (so far it looks like the other two talents pull a good bit ahead of this one), but it's a step in the direction of talent balance.

Glyphs
Glyph of Purge now adds a 6 second cooldown to Purge.
- A change geared towards PvP balance.

Glyph of Flame Shock has been redesigned. This glyph now causes the Shaman to heal for 50% of the damage dealt by Flame Shock.
- Originally this glyph extended the duration of FS by 25% at the cost of Flame Shocks' initial damage. The made the 25% extended duration baseline, and reworked this glyph so that FS will heal us for 50% of the damage it deals. Over all this is a fairly piddly heal, as Flame Shock doesn't tend to do a whole lot of damage single target. However, if you find yourself in a situation where you don't have anything better to put in a glyph spot for a certain fight, an extra little bit of healing is never a bad thing!

Elemental Specific
Elemental Focus now increases the Shaman's spell damage by 15% (was 10%).
Shamanism now increases the damage of Lightning Bolt by 70% (was 50%).
- Two buffs to help bring elemental's overall damage up a bit.

Enhancement Specific
Mental Quickness now lowers the cost of shocks by 90% (still lowers the cost of other “beneficial, instant, damaging and totem spells” by 75%).
- ~~Not completely sure why this change happen, as we don't tend to have many mana issues at max level. There it is though, and I won't complain any.~~

Edit: According to the 5.2 Class Review done by Blizz, this change was geared towards helping out enhancement shaman in PvP scenarios. Apparently with low melee uptime, enhancers were finding themselves OOM. I still won't complain any, as this change can likewise help in certain solo situations!

Spirit Walk now has a 1-minute cooldown (was 2 minutes).
- More mobility is never a bad thing, especially as a melee class. This change is super handy for those movement heavy fights.

As I said a bit ago, most of these changes are really more minor tweaks. A few are quality of life changes, some are simply balancing our talents so that we may choose talents based on either preference or situation, instead of simply choosing a particular talent because "it's always the best one." Naturally, changing certain talents in and out can change your playstyle to a certain degree, but more on that later. Go forth and enjoy the new content!

Podcast Guesting and Updates!

2013-03-06T19:37:00.001-06:00

For those of you who may have missed my tweets or Facebook post, on March 1st I had the pleasure of being a guest on The Training Dummies podcast. On the show we spoke about soloing and they allowed me to geek a bit about alts and enhancement shaman as well! I highly recommend giving the show a listen, as these fellas put out some pretty good content.

The Training Dummies - Episode 33

Solo All The Things!

If you've been waiting with bated breath (it's torturous I'm sure, as 5.2 launched only yesterday) for an updated enhancement guide, fear not! I am currently working on a post that covers the 5.2 changes for shamans in general, and I shall be following that up with a tweaked enhancement guide for this new patch.

Also in the plans is to get out a few more soloing video guides, as well as potentially a walk through on how to enhance your way through the new raid LFR style, once that becomes available. Videos are always on my maybe pile though, as those buggers tend to be time consuming as all get out.

So yes, good things coming soon. Until then, enjoy the podcast!

Prepping for Herald of the Titans

2013-02-09T13:57:00.000-06:00

So, you've seen this nifty title around town, Herald of the Titans. You've looked it up, sort of, and have found out that in order to acquire this this title you must have a level 80 character. Beyond this little tidbit of information, you're finding yourself in need of a little help. This article is here to lend you a hand.

Edit: This achievement was temporarily bugged to where a group of 90s could gain this FoS/Title. DPSing down the boss before it could register the gear and levels of the group can be considered an EXPLOIT, as it is not intended for level 90s to be able to achieve this Feat of Strength. It should be known that using/attempting to use an exploit is a bannable offense according to the Terms of Service that Blizzard has in place, thus isn't something you should be attempting. This bug has also been hotfixed, so stop trying to find a way to circumvent the system that's in place.

The Herald of the Titans is a title acquired by a team of level 80 characters, all in gear of item level 226 or less, taking down this star guy called Algalon. Algalon is remembered as one of those bosses that straight up resonated with all players, both lore-wise and with his encounter. His is an epic fight to experience. Originally Algalon's encounter had a 1 hour time limit in which you could make attempts on taking him down attached to it, but this is no longer the case.

Herald of the Titans has been moved to a Feat of Strength. It is still obtainable however, and the title is account-wide. For a short while after the account-wide titles became a thing, it was thought that this was one title that would forever remain character bound. It turned out though that this was just a bug. Once you achieve the Herald of the Titans FoS, you unlock this nifty title for all of the characters on your account!

Locking Your Character at 80

Freezing your character's XP gain is fairly simplistic. If you're Alliance, you'll want to visit Behsten, who is located in the Stormwind Keep. For Horde, you'll want to speak to Slahtz, who is located in the Valley of Honor. Both of these fellas are stealthed level 19 rogues, though you shouldn't have much issue tracking them down if you click on the provided links.

If you wish to continue on leveling your character after you receive your title, you simply talk to these guys again to turn your XP gain back on. The cost to either toggle the XP gain on or off should only be about 10g.

Gear

In order for the group to qualify for the achievement, everyone must be sporting gear of an item leveling of 226 or lower in all slots, with an exception for weapons, which may be item level 232. Crafted gear, BoEs, and Justice Point gear can all fill gaps quite nicely, and in some cases turn out to be best-in-slot items.

Best-in-slot gear is not required for the achievement, but the more 226 gear you can get on your character, the better. Shoot for making your character sport at least all epic items prior to attempting this encounter.

Gemming

For this Feat of Strength it is preferred that all participating characters to be gemmed with the epic quality Wrath of the Lich King gems. For *most* classes, folks will want to gem their primary stat (Agility/Intellect/Strength) with the exception of possibly tanks and/or healers, who may prefer a mix of their primary and preferred secondary.

Enchanting

Like gemming, it is preferred that all participants have their characters enchanted with the best enchants available to them. It is understandable if a character is on a server that a player may not have a dedicated enchanter to provide materials/enchants for the Herald character (assuming that the Herald toon isn't an enchanter his or herself), however all participants should at least have some sort of enchant on every piece of their gear.

Professions

Professions, while not 100% required, can be a huge help in both gearing and optimizing your Herald character. Like at max level, crafting professions (Tailoring, Enchanting, Jewel Crafting, Leatherworking, Black Smithing, Engineering, and possibly Inscription) are generally preferred over gathering professions (Herbalism, Skinning, Mining). Again, not something that is absolutely needed, though if you have the resources available to you to level up your Herald character's professions to the Cataclysm level, it can help out immensely.

Food

Cataclysm foods are permitted for the Herald of the Titans achievement. It is advised that you stock up on some Cataclysm foods in your primary stat for personal use in the event that a feast is not able to be provided.

Flasks/Potions

Again, for this achievement Cataclysm consumables (in this case, flasks) are permitted. Since group cauldrons are no longer a thing, it is advised that you come prepared with a few flasks in your primary stat.

Likewise you may use Cataclysm potions for this event. While a full stack of a potion of your choice (for DPS this would be a potion that provides your primary stat, for healers this may be a mana return potion, and for tanks this may be either a healing potion, an armor increase potion, or an Agility/Strength potion for increased DPS) probably won't all be needed, it is advised that you have several of these potions on hand. For those of you familiar with double potting, that will not be necessary for this encounter, as the time from entering combat and the time that Algalon actually engages is nearly the full duration of the initial pre-pot. Save your potions for the burn phase!

Reforging

For a Herald character, reforging can be a bit tricky. If you are aware of the exact number you need for your hit and/or expertise caps, using a site such as WoW Reforge can come in pretty handy. In the event that you're not completely aware of what your caps are, an addon called ReforgeLite can help you out greatly.

Before you begin reforging, it is advised that you research which secondary stats your class/spec prefers. For most level 80 classes, Mastery tends to be the most powerful stat available regardless of the level 90 preference of said class/spec. However, for DPS specs it is incredibly important that you must first reach your hit and/or expertise caps before you begin to stack Mastery or any other secondary stat. Tanks, it is likewise advisable to look into how important it is to reach your hit/expertise caps for both threat generation and resource regeneration.

Rotations

Spell priorities and rotations for most classes can be gleaned from their level 90 counterparts, and guides on these spell priorities/rotation may be found on various blogs and/or sites such as Icy-Veins. Naturally, as a level 80 you will not have all of the nifty spells that a level 90 does, but you should have most of the meat and potato spells for your spec. Make minor adjustments as needed.

The Gearing Process

There are several ways to begin the gearing up process, many of which may need to be employed depending on how lucky you are with drops.

1) Crafting - There are several pieces out there that may be crafted for a Herald character. However, these recipes are often subject to droprates, so if you personally or your guildmates do not have the recipe, it may be a bugger to find the right pattern. For 226 specific gear, there are belts and boots available for crafting. If you're in dire need of a chest and glove filler, 200 gear is likewise available for crafting, provided you have the recipes.

2) Wrath 5 Mans - Queuing up for heroic Wrath of the Lich King 5 mans is not necessarily the most efficient way to go about things, unless you have a ready-made group of five. The option is there, however, to have a level 90 solo these instances for you. While most of the heroic-mode 5 mans either sport gear that is rather low in item level (200 or so) or too high (the ICC heroics sport 232 gear), they can provide some decent fillers. Here are some instances that you'll want to focus on to get your filler gear:

Heroic ICC 5 Mans: While most of the gear in these heroics cannot be used for Herald of the Titans, what can be used are the weapon drops. Remember, weapons of ilvl 232 may be used! These heroics will provide that.

Normal ICC 5 Mans: The gear that drops in the normal version of these dungeons drop 219 gear, which is perfectly acceptable. Easily chain farmed if you have the time available to you.

Heroic ToC 5: This instance will provide you with 219 gear on heroic. While still not the easiest solo for even a level 90, it is doable by some tank and DPS classes.

Regular ToC 5: Soloable by most level 90 classes, ToC regular provides ilvl 200 gear. While not the most optimal, this instance provides Heralds characters with an easily obtained/farmable trinket. Most of these trinkets were desirable up into even Icecrown Citadel if a raider at that time was unlucky.

3) Cataclysm Dungeons
Justice Points can be used to purchase a variety of gear from the vendors found in Dalaran. Some of these purchasable items are BoE, so they can be bought by another character who has excess JP laying around. However, many of the items are BoP and will require farming on your Herald toon.

There are two Cataclysm dungeons that are available to level 80s: Throne of the Tides and Blackrock Caverns. Queuing up for these randomly, at least one per day for your daily boost in JP gain, is pretty much the best way to farm for your needed Justice Points.

Given the fact that you'll be farming these two Cataclysm dungeons over and over again, chances are you'll end up with two different sets of gear; one for farming, one for Herald of the Titans. It is perfectly okay to wear items that are above the 226 requirement while you are farming for your Herald gear. As a matter of a fact it's encouraged to have a higher item level set, especially if you're having a friend solo instances for you, as it greatly increases your chance of survival in some situations. If you're running with a gear group through Ulduar, wearing higher gear generally yields higher damage output, which naturally speeds up the farming runs a bit.

4) Ulduar
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, farming Ulduar for gear is another option. There are a few things to remember though:

- Ulduar 10 provides 219 gear from normal modes; 226 gear from hardmodes and Algalon
- Ulduar 25 provides 226 gear from normal modes; 239 gear from hardmodes and Algalon, which is not usable for Herald of the Titans
- Be sure to not save yourself to Algalon the week you plan on attempting the achievement. Remember, the lockouts have changed. If you kill Algalon on 25 man difficulty, you will also be locked out of Algalon 10 for the week.
- Be mindful of possible lockout issues if you were to participate in a partial run through Ulduar. While lockout issues should not occur if you were to say, kill 3 bosses and someone else cleared everything besides Algalon himself, it is possible that funky things could occur. Just play it safe during the week you plan on attempting the achievement.

If you happen to have either a second account with a max level character on it, you could very well solo a good chunk of Ulduar for gear as well, with your Herald toon in tow. If this option isn't available to you, if you happen to have a friend who is generous with their time and is a capable soloist, they could potentially run you through the instance as you try to keep yourself alive. Again, a few things to remember before you attempt duoing this with a friend or yourself:

- Ulduar 10 is mostly soloable by several level 90 DPS classes currently as well as most level 90 tank classes, with the exception being Thorim, who takes some tricky engineering work to get around.

- Ulduar 25 likewise should be soloable by a level 90 DPS or tank type, though mileage may vary depending on gear and skill.

5) Other Raids
If you really need gear with a quickness, do not forget to run Naxxramas 10 (ilvl 200) or 25 (ilvl 213), Malygos 10 (ilvl 213) or 25 (ilvl 226), Obsidian Sanctum 10 (ilvl 200/213 with bonus drakes) or 25 (ilvl 213/226 with bonus drakes), and Onyxia 10 (ilvl 232 weapons).

The tier 7 set bonuses are often decent and can/should be used if you're unable to get yourself a 2 and/or 4 set tier 8 bonus.

Naxx 10: Should be fully soloable by most LFR geared DPS and tank classes
Naxx 25: Should be fully soloable by most tank and high-burst plate DPS classes; some DPS classes may struggle with Patchwerk/Instructor Razuvious, though the rest of the instance *should* be soloable.
Malygos 10/25: 10 is easily soloable by most DPS classes, 25 is doable by those who are semi decently geared, have some higher burst abilities, and those who are capable with the drakes in phase 3.
Obsidian Sanctum 10/25: OS3D 10 should be soloable by most higher burst classes who are at least sporting some LFR or normal mode t14 gear. 25 should be doable by some high burst classes that have either full normal mode gear with 4 piece bonuses or are in heroic mode t14 gear.
Onyxia 10: Soloable by most DPS/tank classes even at level 85 (with Dragon Soul gear), let alone level 90.

6) BoEs
Remember to check the auction house if you've already tapped all of your raiding resources, because BoEs drop from Naxx, OS, EoE (Malygos), and even Ulduar itself. These BoEs can certainly fill in a space in a pinch, and generally only go for a few hundred gold at most these days.

7) Extra Sources of Justice Points
Edit: With making this guide, I completely forgot about the conversion of Honor Points to Justice Point. If you had leveled via PvP, you may trade your extra HP for JP at the Honor vendor in your faction's main city. Below is a quote from one of our commenters, Evlyxx, advising us on how to gain even more HP to trade over for JP:

However, 1 vital source of Justice Points is missing from the guide, the PVP quests in Venture Bay, which give 200 honor per day that can be converted into Justice Points every other day. Not a lot by level 90 standards but the return per minute is huge as the biggest unforseen problem I and my friends encountered was getting Justice Points as the Wrath dungeons didn't reward any.

The Fight

Alright, so you've got the gear and it's all dazzled up, you've got your required raiding consumables, and you're ready to get down to business. As it is with current end-game raiding, it's wise to look at the fight ahead of time. Here's the original Tankspot guide on how to tackle this encounter.

Looks a bit complex, eh? Try not to fret too much, as the encounter is actually much easier, thanks to our little friend called Mastery. That's right, because of this one little (and rather potent) stat addition, overall DPS *should* be higher than it was when Algalon was current content, healing throughput *should* be a bit stronger, and tanking likewise *should* be a bit smoother. I strongly accentuate the word should simply because often Herald toons are not sitting in full BiS 226 gear, nor at Herald toons generally a class someone plays as a main. Despite everything, Mastery as a whole tends to help make up the differences of both skill and lack of BiS gear.

While yes, the fight is much easier with a group of twinks and semi-twinks, do not allow yourself to be lulled into a false sense of "this is easy" however. For most groups, it will take several pulls before everyone is acclimated to how the encounter feels on their particular character. If everyone has prepared correctly though, the learning process and achievement gain should be fairly painless.

I hope that this post has helped a few of you out! As always, if you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to ask. I wish you all luck with your gearing. Now go have yourself some fun!

Healing As Enhancement

2013-02-03T18:30:00.000-06:00

If you're just now returning to the game, or if you're leveling an enhancement shaman for the first time, you may be wondering "How the heck do I heal?" Enhancement healing is relatively simple, yet can seem a bit complex at times to the untrained shaman.

Some of you old-timers may be wondering about where the heck Healing Wave and Greater Healing Wave ran off to. Well, both of these spells have decided to get permanently hitched to our restoration brothers and sisters, effectively dumping us. That's right, our only actively cast healing spells are now Healing Surge, Chain Heal, and Healing Rain. I see you giving Healing Surge the stink eye; try not to judge it quite yet, it's more potent than it looks.

Please note that I will only be covering the spell modifiers (mainly talents and glyphs, not necessarily procs/secondary stat scaling) that directly effect healing. There are several other glyphs/talents that boost resistances and help to dispel, but I will not be including those within this article.

Healing Surge

Unless you're hard casting Healing Surge for some odd reason, this spell is more than adequate for the pinch healing that you'll need during leveling/soloing/raiding. Trust me, this spell has been saving my shaman butt for months now. Check out these modifiers that makes Healing Surge more potent for us.

Modified by:
1) Maelstrom Weapon - For each stack of Maelstrom Weapon, Healing Surge will both cost less mana and heal for greater amounts.
2) Healing Storm - This glyph will cause your healing done to be increased by 20% per Maelstrom Weapon stack.
3) Echo of Elements - This talent can cause your Healing Surge to "echo," effectively casting Healing Surge a second time without any extra effort from you or resource cost. Both the original spell an the echoed spell can crit independently.

Might not be so bad, eh? Now let's break down some of our other healing abilities.

Chain Heal

Chain Heal is not a spell commonly cast by an enhancement shaman unless said shaman is within proximity of several raid mates and their healers are struggling. Remember, it is your job as a dps to do damage, not play healing hero. In the event that your healers are oom, you may use Chain Heal and Healing Rain as last ditch efforts to save your raid team long enough to make a kill. If you need to save yourself in the event that you accidentally stood in the bad though, use Healing Surge. Chain Heal doesn't heal for a ton single-target, and can unfortunately only bounce so far.

Modified by:
1) Maelstrom Weapon - For each stack of Maelstrom Weapon, Healing Surge will both cost less mana and heal for greater amounts.
2) Healing Storm - This glyph will cause your healing done to be increased by 20% per Maelstrom Weapon stack.
3) Echo of Elements - This talent can cause your Chain Heal to "echo," effectively casting Chain Heal a second time without any extra effort from you or resource cost. Crits will behave as if you had cast Chain Heal twice, meaning they'll do their own thing regardless of what the original spell did.

Healing Rain

Much like Chain Heal, Healing Rain is not a spell commonly cast by an enhancement shaman unless said shaman is within proximity of several raid mates and their healers are struggling. Healing Rain can help to stabilize a group's health, though overall doesn't do a ton of healing. Remember, it is your job as a dps to do damage, not play healing hero. In the event that your healers are oom, you may use Chain Heal and Healing Rain as last ditch efforts to save your raid team long enough to make a kill. If you need to save yourself in the event that you accidentally stood in the bad though, use Healing Surge.

Healing Rain also plays a part in how the talent Conductivity works. More on this a little bit later.

Modified by:
1) Maelstrom Weapon - For each stack of Maelstrom Weapon, Healing Rain will both cost less mana and heal for greater amounts.
2) Healing Storm - This glyph will cause your healing done to be increased by 20% per Maelstrom Weapon stack.

Healing Stream Totem
This totem has been a healing staple for us shaman for quite some time now. While it has had a bit of a makeover since Cataclysm, this totem can still put out a good little bit of healing. Currently this totem is a single target smart heal, and prefers to target those in the shaman's group who have the lowest health. The Mists of Pandaria version only lasts for 15 seconds at a time and has a cooldown, but said cooldown is relatively short (30 seconds). If you're in dire need of a second Healing Stream Totem, and fast, you may reset the cooldown if you're specced into Call of the Elements (3 minute cooldown on this talent).

Modified by:
1) Call of the Elements - Resets the 30 second cooldown on this totem. Usable once every 3 minutes.

Healing Tide Totem
It's a totem, it's a talent, it's a "major" healing cooldown! That's right, Healing Tide Totem is not a standard water totem for us damage dealing shaman, but it is available to us via talents. Unfortunately, this talent is second to Ancestral Guidance in terms of healing output capabilities, mainly due to the fact that it doesn't really scale all that well for us. Plus, it's fickle and likes to oscillate on how many ticks of healing it'll put out. There are situations where this totem could potentially be more useful, however. If your raid needs a healing cooldown during periods where you're not able to hit a boss, for example. Though, for the most part your healing team should be able to plan around mechanics to make it so they can make the greatest use out of your hybrid healing abilities (which would be to use Ancestral Guidance whilst you are parked on a boss/pile of adds). This totem can also be highly useful in soloing situations where you find yourself kiting more often than hitting something, though those situations are rather rare.

You may not have Healing Tide Totem and Healing Stream Totem out at the same time; popping one while the other is out can end up being a slight waste in both the totem itself, and the GCD.

Modified by:
1) Talents that only restoration has which passively boosts all of their healing, including totems
2) Haste plateaus, which enhance doesn't shoot for

Ancestral Guidance
This particular talent currently offers us dps shaman types the biggest bang for our talent point...assuming we can swat at things. Ancestral Guidance yields the highest output while we are in our Ascendance form, though please keep in mind that tying the two together may result in a complete waste of Ancestral Guidance, unless there's an increased damage taken and received phase, such as the gas phase on Will of the Emperor normal mode. For soloing purposes however, if you happen to pop AG while in Ascendance, you could very well see yourself go from nearly dead to full very quickly. Stormstrike/Stormblast, Lava Lash, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lighting, the initial impact of shocks (meaning NOT Flame Shock's tick, just the impact when you first cast it), and Fire Nova all essentially become means of healing through this talent for a short duration.

Modified by:
1) The use of dps cooldowns in conjunction with this ability.

Conductivity
What this talent does essentially is give anyone within the shaman's healing rain either 20% of their healing done (say, you cast Healing Surge on yourself while in your own healing rain, each person standing in your rain will likewise receive 20% of the healing that Healing Surge did to you) or 50% of their damage done is turned into healing (again you and a few raid mates are standing in your rain, Lava Lash hits for 150k so everyone in that rain gets a split healing total 75k). Currently Conductivity is a dps loss due to having to waste Maelstrom resources on dropping Healing Rain, suffers from positional issues, and overall has a lower HPS output than both Ancestral Guidance (our current best talent option for that tier) and Healing Tide Totem. Conductivity will be getting some love come patch 5.2 by having its "standing in the Healing Rain" requirement removed, but chances are pretty good that most of us will be sticking with Ancestral Guidance as our primary choice.

Modified by:
1) Elemental Blast - This is currently a talent that no enhancement shaman should be taking because of its lower damage output compared to Unleashed Elements and even Primal Elementalist, but due to its massive secondary stat boost plus some of the love it will be receiving in patch 5.2, it's worth noting. In 5.2 it is said that EB will also give a boost in Agility every time it is cast for enhancement shaman who choose this talent, which in turn will make the healing done via Conductivity a bit more powerful. However, due to resources (both Conductivity and Elemental Blast consume Maelstrom Weapon stacks, so you'd have to potentially hard cast one of these abilities) this combination may not be the best for enhancement. While it appears that tier 14 will allot us more Maelstrom procs, I have my doubts of this combination being worth the hassle for our spec.

Feral Spirits
That's right, even our wolves heal us! Just us though, they really don't like anyone else. Every time they attack, 150% of the damage they deal heals both them and us. Pretty neat, eh? But that's not all! If you have Glyph of Feral Spirit in, they deal another 40% in healing, which is to say pretty darn potent. Yeah that's right, our wolves aren't just a little damage cooldown that looks all flashy, but they're also a fairly decent self healing cooldown as well. Pretty hard to take us down when we have our wolf pals out!

Modified by:
1) Glyph of Feral Spirit
2) Mastery - The Feral Spirits attack using a spell called Spirit Bite, which deals nature damage. Due to our Enhancement Mastery, the more mastery we have, the stronger our wolves will attack. The stronger their attacks, the more healing we receive.

Glyph of Flame Shock
While this glyph's changes won't be implemented on live servers until 5.2 (at the time of writing this post, this glyph adjusts the damage and duration of Flame Shock), assuming that it makes the cut, I figured that it would be worth mentioning to those of you who are reading this in the future. Come next patch, you will personally be healed by 30% of the damage your Flame Shock does. My assumption is that if you were to spread your Flame Shock via Lava Lash and had multiple Flame Shocks rolling at once, you'd likewise receive healing from those Flame Shocks.

I'll admit that this glyph looks pretty good on paper, but from the sounds of it this may end up being a fairly lackluster choice at first, since Flame Shock doesn't do a ton of damage by itself. It may however end up scaling nicely towards the end of this expansion. We'll have to wait and see what the theorycrafting community's verdict on particular glyph is to know for sure though.

That's everything we have currently. So let's break it down into simple terms, going by what is typically specced for and glyphed:

Personal/Single Target Healing: Healing Surge, Feral Spirits, Healing Stream Totem, Flame Shock (5.2 with a glyph)
Party/Raid Healing: Chain Heal, Healing Rain, Healing Stream Totem, Ancestral Guidance (or Healing Tide Totem)
Healing Glyphs: Feral Spirit, Healing Storm, Flame Shock (possibly in 5.2)

Also, don't forget your professions and racials. If you're an herbalist, Lifeblood can help you out in a pinch (plus the extra haste is pretty neat) and if you just so happen to be a Draenei, Gift of the Naaru can restore 20% of your (or a friend's, or Tsulong's) health to you (or your friend, or Tsulong even) over the duration of 15 seconds. Can't beat free healing!

I hope this article has helped you out some, even if it is rather lengthy. Remember, enhancement shamans have a ton of healing utility within our bag of tricks, so there's no need to feel helpless if you're hurting!

Is Enhancement Viable For Raiding?

2013-01-23T16:02:00.001-06:00

One question that seems to be commonly asked within class forums pertains to whether or not X class is currently "viable" for the latest raid content. Before we get much further into this post, let us first define what viable means.

Viable: Adjective Capable of working successfully; feasible

This essentially means that to be viable as a raiding spec, said spec would have to be able to be able to compete on whatever chart with its fellow peers within a certain percentage. Let's look at some charts to see how well Blizzard has been doing in regards to balancing the various DPS specializations in our current available raiding formats.

Click on the images to enlarge!

The above images have been taken from the site RaidBots. This site shows us the top 100 parses averaged over the whatever time frame you set it up to show you. Now, please be aware that this site is to be used as a reference, not a bible. Your damage output may vary from what is shown on this site due to either gearing differences, the difficulty you participate in, and not to mention potential player error.

Now, what you're looking at here is the average output of each respective DPS class and spec over the course of the last 60 days for all encounters. Notice how the dark blue squiggly line representing enhancement is smack dab in the middle of the pack of squiggly lines. Let me assure you, this is a very good place to be! For the most part, enhance seems to be within the roughly 10k median range, most often right smack dab in the middle. If you so wish, you may venture over to the site and look how enhance preforms on various encounters. For the most part though, we do indeed preform in an average manner. In some cases we preform better than other DPS classes, some we struggle with, but such as it is with diverse encounters.

What this essentially means is that we're currently not over powered, thus not in the queue for the nerfbat come the next patch, nor are we under preforming to the point where a raid team wouldn't consider taking us to a raid. We will be receiving some minor tweaks come patch 5.2, but these changes shouldn't make or break us, they will simply allow us to swap between out tier 4 and 6 talents to more effectively take on encounters. It also means that we're more than capable of keeping up with the vast majority of our peers on most encounters. Except for those pesky affliction warlocks and arcane mages. We won't really consider them for the moment though.

With all that said, I'd now like to touch on a related subject: how much does viability matter?

This is a rat's nest of a topic, but it is my personal opinion that viability as it were is a rather fluid thing. What I mean by this is that a given class is only as viable as the player behind it and the gear on the character itself. Yes, each class has a maximum potential ceiling that most of us try to strive for. However, unless someone is a robot on a perfect internet connection with all of the available buffs and have the RNG proc luck of the gods, most of us will never see that very top most performance ceiling. It's not that we don't try, it's that we all have our hindrances, be it latency, lack of best in slot gear, or even *gasp* human error.

This is where averages are good to consider. While yes, the above graphs were taken from the top 100 parses, thus represent some pretty fantastic players, they only give us a very broad idea on how each class preforms on average. Some specializations represented are capable of more but are skewed by funky raid comps or lack of representation. Again, this should be viewed as a reference, not a bible. I cannot stress this point enough. The above information needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

The fact of the matter is that unless you're a member of a top 100 guild, the so-called viability of most classes may not matter a whole lot to you since your guild's focus probably isn't aimed at acquiring world firsts, thus you have no real need to know how to stack which classes paired with what to put out the absolute maximum DPS numbers. For the typical WoW player, number crunching down to the last possible percentage isn't necessary. Chances are pretty good that most of you who will read this are in a middle of the road guild, perhaps either fairly casual and just doing your thing or dedicated to the point where you're pushing heroic modes. Chances are also pretty good that the talent within your raid team may vary to a certain degree. That's completely okay. All that means is that the above information shouldn't sway how you play to the degree that it would for the incredibly hardcore players in this game. Should it still be taken into consideration? Perhaps to a small degree, but I think the average player/guild will ultimately find more success in worrying about the people they bring into their raid environment versus worrying about what the top hot classes are for the current patch.

I'll let you in on a little secret: Any well-played class/spec can beat out any so-called overpowered class poorly played. I know this fact first hand.

The TL;DR version of this post is this: Bring the player, not the class/spec. While yes, you should always consider raid composition and loot distribution when you're trying to plan out raids, it ultimately won't matter much if you have a perfect raid comp when half of the players may not be capable preforming up to the group's standards. A decently geared enhancement shaman can very well beat out a similarly geared warlock or mage; it just depends on the capability of the players.

Enhancement is indeed viable. We are represented in higher end guilds. There are enhancers out there who have taken down Heroic Sha of Fear in Terrace of Endless Spring and we are more than capable with keeping up on the damage meters, regardless of the type of PvE content we find ourselves in. We also bring some pretty stellar hybrid healing utility, not to mention personal survivability, to the table. Plus, we're sexy beasts. Why wouldn't you want to play/have a sexy beast on your team?

Brawler's Be Brawlin'

2013-01-10T03:23:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone! I hope you've all had a wonderful holiday and that you didn't find yourself at the bottom of a cask of Dwarven Ale during the New Year celebrations, at least not without supervision. My holidays pretty much consisted of having a house full of family for about a week and a half, roughly two days of me being feverish, and a whole ton of sleeping. It was a super productive stretch of time, let me tell you.

Despite the lunacy that was the holidays, there has been a good bit of exploration of the solo content going on. While the raiding break has been kind of awkward, I've definitely been keeping busy. Alts? Two more are sitting at 90, one of which is a second shaman. Pet battles? Diggin' them. Working my way through old raids? You bet. Brawler's Guild? Just hit rank 8 and let me tell you, those bosses mean business!

Slowly but surely I've also been working on putting out video guides. I don't just mean "Hey, watch me tackle things while music is playing in the background!" sort of videos either. These guides actually have words that are verbally spoken by me. Let me tell you, moving from a text-based mindset into a speaking one is awkward at best for me. While I have a tendency to be verbose in text, I'm often easily tongue-tied and rather soft spoken. It's been an interesting project thus far, one that's certainly pushing my comfort zone.

So, it is with much excitement and dread that I present to you my Brawler's Guild guides. I say dread mainly because it's painfully apparently how much of a learning process this series will be for me format wise, and I say excitement because videos of this nature are something that I've been wanting to do for some time. I only have ranks 1 and 2 complete at the time of writing this post, but rank 3 should be out within the next day or two. I really cannot wait to be able to share ranks 7 and 8 with everyone!

Right, videos.

So what do you all think? Is this enough, or would you all prefer supplemental text guides that broke things down even more? I know these videos are fairly fast paced, and that was kind of the intent. I wanted short and sweet versus something that drones on, but I realize that it may not be quite enough for some. Toss me some feedback, I'd greatly appreciate it!

One top of all the Brawler's stuff, I'm hoping to get out guides on how to solo old raids fairly soon. Once those are published I'll be linking those on the What's Soloable By Enhancement post, but for best results watch either Twitter, Facebook, or even Youtube itself for announcements of when they're posted.

Anyways, off I go to tinker with more video footage and hopefully acquire my 'Brawler' title. Like I said earlier in this post, those rank 8 bosses mean business. So much fancy footwork involved and if you're a bit slow, BOOM. You're a splatter on the ground. Needless to say, I've died a lot so far to rank 8. So much fun! No sarcasm, because as frustrating as Brawler's Guild can become, it really is a friggen blast. I definitely encourage you all to go check it out at some point.

The End of an Era...Kind of.

2012-12-24T05:27:00.000-06:00

Guys, I've done something drastic. I'm officially stepped down from raiding, at least for the moment.

I don't think this fact has truly set in for me yet. Raiding for me has been that thing I've always done, it's what has been the consumer of the bulk of my in-game time since I began playing "seriously" back in the Burning Crusade. While I do enjoy a good reputation grind, the hunt for those elusive rares, and playing dress up with my latest alt, raiding has always been where I've sent the vast majority of my energy. Why on Azeroth would I remove myself from something I love so wholeheartedly, even temporarily?

The answer to this question is rather complex, but the TL; DR version is simply: Burnout.

I've been raiding full tilt for a bit over a year now, much longer if you add in my prior years of raiding. I came back into the raiding scene shortly after the initial nerf to Firelands after a lengthy forced break and haven't had a whole lot of down time since. Mists of Pandaria, while fantastic on so many levels, has proven to be an incredibly overwhelming experience for me. Between the rush to level 90 - which was great fun and one rush that I'm unlikely to repeat - and the reputation grinds and the mad hurry to get geared up, get through this raid, loot dramas, fight this boss, show up every night, oh crap we need to recruit, do up the videos, write some posts, run this, organize that, solo all the things, raid raid raidsmashfaceonkeyboardginger shamanistic raaaaaage...it has kind of all piled up on me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm well aware that I'm somewhat masochistic when it comes to this game and all of my projects. I'm everywhere at once, and I have a tendency to take everything upon myself. Is it necessary that I be the keeper of combat logs, maker of pixelated kill videos, manager of the guild's website, and the one who is first to jump up and say "I'll do it!" whenever the guild needs recruitment forum posts? Absolutely not, but I've always enjoyed doing all that because some of those things need to be done anyways, and I like to make it so that my guild may have nice things. There's also absolutely no reason why I should be the only person to have a hand in the Twitterland Raiding site, but I have that terrible habit of taking it all on by myself. Making guides on this blog or videos for Youtube isn't mandatory for enjoyable game play, but I do it anyways because I know that there are a few select folks who enjoy seeing that sort of thing. The things mentioned in this paragraph are all things I highly enjoy. I do not believe that my issues lay within all of my projects, but rather in one aspect of my favorite pastime.

For the past several months, logging on to raid has felt like more of a chore than something I looked forward to. Instead of thinking to myself "Yes! It's raid night!" my thought processes were more along the lines of "Fuck, I have to raid tonight." This shift in the way I thought about my evening activities were brought on by a number of things, things I shan't go into detail at this point in time, but let's just say I'm not very happy with this change.

Needless to say, my negative way of thinking has impacted me on several levels. Where I was hyper aware of what was going on in the raid, I tend to find myself on auto-pilot, even on new encounters where such a thing can be incredibly hazardous to a boss kill. Where I was once able to easily joke and bullshit with my raid mates, I'm finding myself to be grumpy and resentful. Where I was once relaxed, I'm finding myself feeling anxious and often end up with stomach aches and massive tension headaches. Raiding, for as much as I love the thrill of seeing a new boss fall, love pushing myself to perform on the next level, love getting that new weapon upgrade...it just, it doesn't feel right anymore. It feels bad. I don't enjoy having something that I adore so much feel so wrong.

Change is absolutely needed, so it is with a heavy heart and an "aw crap, this sucks" look on my face, I am removing myself from the raiding scene for now. I'm unsure if this will be a permanent change, but it is most certainly one that shall remain for the time being. Whether I'll return with a renewed vengeance in a few weeks, a few months, a few tiers, or a few years, you can bet your butt that I'll come out swinging harder than ever.

So, what now? Why am I bothering to write this post at all? Well for starters, this post is me working through a massive knot that's been building in my belly for quite some time. My thoughts about stepping down have stricken me with quite a bit of internal conflict, and in a way I just needed to get it down in writing. Like most bloggers, I have that need to just get crap off my chest, and I prefer to do it in my own little realm of the internet. This post is also in part to inform my readers that, despite me removing myself from one of my main activities, I do plan on remaining quite active in the game. Saz will not be laying down her weapons anytime soon, but she will definitely be taking a bit of time to hit up the spa and relax her weary muscles.

What can you expect of me in the future? A lot, I hope. It is my deepest wish to get back into the loop with the lovely blogging community, as it feels like I have been neglecting you all for ages. I also hope to start doing more content videos, be it guides, soloing, or random crap I happen to be doing. I have plans that will hopefully breathe new life into the Twitterland Raiding project, and goals for both in game and out of game growth on a personal and social level. As per usual, I plan to take on a crapload of projects. Without raiding on the schedule though, I hope to bring these projects to you all, and the greater WoW community, both more efficiently and with better quality.

As you can see, I have a lot of hopes, a lot of plans. In this apparently post-apocalyptic world I shall be making a point to begin anew. Perhaps not so much anew as bringing about a massive turning point that should hopefully bring about more happiness for at least myself, if not those around me as well. That's the ultimate goal: to create something(s) that not only make me happier, but to also bring some happiness to my fellow internet friends. After all, happiness breeds happiness, and negativity is always sure to be a continuous downward spiral.

Let's all keep on swingin'. Here's to new leaves being turned over, new projects, new horizons, and a soon to be new year.

How To Enhance: Combat Openers and the Cooldown Toolkit

2012-12-09T20:07:00.000-06:00

Whatever it is you do, be it raiding, PvP, brawling, or soloing, knowing how and when to use your DPS burst capabilities - regardless of your class - can often mean the difference between a win and a corpse run.

Once upon a time, enhancement was known for its turtle-like damage. Slow, steady, always statically dependable. It didn't have that fancy thing called "burst" and often suffered on certain gimmick fights *coughspinecough* because of this. Those days are no more though. We shaman are now the kings and queens of mean burst, and how to get the most out of this bursting capability is what I'd like to talk about today.

First, let's cover which abilities actually give us our high burst.

Primary
Ascendance - Our big "lolol I WIN" button. This is pretty much our biggest source of burst these days, and the best part is that it can be used at range. Super handy for certain situations, like say for the air phase on Onyxia or the head on Mimiron.
Heroism/Bloodlust - Tasty, tasty haste! Generally this is considered a raid cooldown, but for soloing it can be either an "I WIN" button or can be saved as a panic button.
Stormlash Totem - Oh Stormlash Totem, allow me to sing you a song of my love! While this is a very potent raid cooldown, it is also a humungous personal cooldown, given how it weaves together with Windfury, our special attacks, and our auto attacks.
Fire Elemental Totem - Big Red is now a viable DPS cooldown for us! He slices, he dices! Oh wait...no. He just burns all the things. He'll happily apply Searing Flames stacks for you, making your Lava Lash hit harder, plus he can do okayish AoE, provided he has something to actually hit (he's kind of completely useless on Lei Shi's Hide phase). This guy is a pretty nice bursty CD, so use him often! You can have him out even more often if you have him glyphed, but it's not recommended to do this unless you're a Troll. Even if you're a Troll, you only may want to do this if you're elemental, or maybe even a restoration shaman regardless of race. Maybe.
Feral Spirit - Our beloved pups, how silly you two are! These guys aren't the hardest hitting DPS cooldown in our arsenal, but they are one none the less. They give you some pretty potent passive healing, especially if they're glyphed, so definitely use these guys often.

Optional
Elemental Mastery - This isn't a talent that's typically taken by enhancement shaman, though certainly has some uses in certain situations. I recommend this talent for certain encounters where you need very focused burst, or for those solos that require you to kill the bad thing before your cooldowns run out and it kills you. Times up nicely with your wolves, and if you're an engineer like I am, your Synapse Springs, for those longer boss fights.
Synapse Springs - The glove enhancement for engineers, which may be applied in addition to our usual glove enchant. Synapse Springs are on a 1 minute cooldown, so I personally macro them to my wolves, which are on a 2 minute cooldown. So long as you use your springs as soon as they come off of cooldown, these two things should always line up nicely for you. They may not always be as ideal as a static stat boost, such as an enchanter's ring enchants, but they are awfully nice for kicking out extra burst.
Berserking - This be da Troll's racial, mon! It's a nice little haste buff that can be timed up very well with Ascendance. If you're a Troll, use this. Love this. Own this!
On Use Trinkets - Use trinkets are thus far not as prevalent in MoP through PvE content, though they still do exist. Most of the use trinkets will provide more of a boost as far as burst is concerned in general, and more than likely will be more powerful than your Synapse Springs (assuming you're an engineer). Keep in mind that trinkets and springs do trigger a 20 second cooldown when one or the other is used, so you will not be able to stack them. My advice is to tie in the stronger of the two options in with whatever DPS cooldown lines up the best with that trinket's on-use cooldown, then simply use the other once that 20 seconds of lockout time is up for the other item.

In addition to what is listed above, pre-potting is also a highly encouraged option (not always applicable, depending on the start of a fight). Being able to use two pots within a single encounter is an easy way to get the biggest bang out of your damage.

I'd also mention gear swapping here, but as of the last patch (5.1) Blizzard has officially broken the ability to swap a gear set and keep the buff it a given set provides. The biggest example being: it was a pretty nice DPS increase for both enhancement and elemental shaman to equip the tier 13 restoration 4 piece set, activate Spiritwalker's Grace for the haste bonus it gave (30%), and then to swap back to their normal gear just before a pull. Now when you switch back to your normal gear, you lose the Spiritwalker's Grace haste buff, making the gear swap completely pointless. You may now safely vendor your old restoration set, unless you want it for transmog, and remove your gear swap macros from your macro book.

Alright, now that you know the toolkit, let's put it into practice. Your opener, regardless if you're soloing or simply raiding with your buds, can often mean the difference between beating that enrage timer or going splat. It requires a certain finesse. You often want to put out the highest damage possible off the bat, but if you're in a raiding environment, you want to do so without pulling threat off of your tank(s) as well. You'll have to learn how many seconds you need to count before you can open up on a boss (less if you have a strong, geared tank and/or 2+ misdirects from rogues and hunters going out, more if you are missing these things) on your own; each group is a bit different and each gearing plateau is a beast of its own. Right, so a standard opener for raiding looks something like this:

- 5 seconds before pull: Use Spirit Walk, if you need a gap closer between yourself and a boss.
- 3 seconds before pull: Use potion
- 2 seconds before pull: Pop your Fire Elemental totem.
- 1 second before pull: Pop wolves (this would be your Synapse Springs + Feral Spirit macro, if you're an engineer)
- PULL
- Give the tank a tick or two to hit the boss, doing his/her aggro thang.
- Unleash Elements as you close in on the boss.
- Flame Shock if you're not quite there yet.
- Stormstrike
- Ascendance + Heroism/Lust + Stormlash Totem (Hero/Lust assuming your raid wishes to have it at the beginning)
- Stormblast (aka Super Stormstrike)
- Lava Lash (you should most certainly have 5 searing stacks up by now; if you don't, check the pulse of your fire elemental)
- Swing into your usual rotation of using SS/LL/UE on CD, weaving in your Flame Shock and Earth Shock in as normal, plus using Lightning Bolt (or Chain Lightning in cleave situations) with 4-5 Maelstrom Stacks up. Use Fire Nova only after you've used Lava Lash to cleave your Flame Shock to multiple targets, and only if you need to spellcleave.

If you're a Troll and/or if you're specced into Elemental Mastery for a given encounter, it may be best to stagger your haste CDs some, especially at higher gear levels, simply because you'll hit that ceiling where your haste is just, well, a waste! If you're not using Hero/Lust off the bat, you can burn these two cooldowns right off the get go, then simply continue to use them with their paired DPS cooldowns later on (wolves with EM, Berserking with Ascendance/Glyphed Fire Elemental Totem). If you ARE Heroing/Lusting off the bat, the use of these other haste CDs can get a little funky. Apply them to the best of your abilities and where they make the most sense for the given encounter. For soloing, especially those shortish fights that are to short for using your cooldowns a second time, but long enough to outlast Hero/Lust, simply pop your secondary haste abilities once Hero/Lust wears off.

Now, the above advice is by no means perfect, but I've been finding that it works very well for me. It puts out some pretty incredibly high opening numbers, while at the same time it *usually* keeps my threat under that of my tanks. If it doesn't, the panicked Wind Sear gets thrown out there, and on occasion I do find myself toggling off my auto attack in a mad hurry. For the most part though, the above has been serving me incredibly well with both raiding and soloing.

H'okay so, we've covered the opening. What about your burst later on in the encounter? Well, this completely depends on the encounter. On a standard Patchwerk like fight, which are quite rare these days, you'd simply use your cooldowns again as they came up. With many encounters, this theory still works fine, but on others you may find that you can't - or shouldn't - always use them all willy nilly. There will be times when you may want to hold off on popping a cooldown lest you get gimped by a boss mechanic, effectively wasting your cooldown (I find that Amber Shaper is great for this; I've learned to hold off on Ascendance especially if Reshape Life is about to go out since he just LOVES to cast it on me if I've just popped Ascendance). Timing is absolutely everything. Until I can get around to dissecting each encounter and get around to writing a guide for them all, I'm afraid you're all on your own with figuring out how you should pop your cooldowns on a given fight. I'm not terribly worried though, you're all smart cookies and are more than capable. I mean, you all chose to play enhancement after all!

As always, if you have any questions about the topic covered here, or any aspect of enhancement for that matter, please do not hesitate to drop a comment here or to contact me through either Twitter or my email (listed under 'Contact' on this blog). I'm always happy to answer questions. I promise I don't bite too hard!

Until next time, keep swinging!

The Art of Soloing - Where To Begin

2012-12-02T11:40:00.001-06:00

Greetings young Grasshoppers. So you've come seeking wisdom on how to solo raid bosses, eh?

Whether you're after some sweet transmog gear, chasing a new rare raid drop pet, looking for a mount that supposedly exists, or just in the market for a few luls, I am here to happily give you a few pointers on how anyone of any class (and *most* specs) may do any of the things mentioned above.

Pull up a chair and let's get down to my top 5 tips on soloing old content.

1. Throw your old raiding habits out the window

For DPS: You know those old time rules that are practically beat into the head of any raider ever? That silly thing called "watching your threat" and "not standing in front of the big baddy"? Guess what, both of those ideas need to go. No more hiding behind the skirts of some tank. YOU are now the tank. You need to THINK like a tank, move like a tank, DODGE ALL THE THINGS like a tank. You know how you'd maybe only hit those personal defensive cooldowns when the raid damage got kind of ouchie? Yeah, you'll have to learn where you'll actually need to preemptively hit those for certain fights during times you may not be used to. Those security of life blankets we know as healers? GONE. You, my dear little one, are now your own healer. You'll have to learn how to time your personal healing cooldowns to keep yourself from becoming a crispy corpse on the floor.

For Tanks: You dudes and dudettes pretty much do what your usually do, but now it's with a bit of a twist. You'll now be up against possible enrage timers that you'll have to play the role of DPS to get past (though, you buggers with your Vengeances, for the most part damage dealing shouldn't be much of a problem). Like the DPS though, you know longer have your healers at your back. You'll have to absolutely know when to use your mitigation cooldowns to prevent your health from dropping in the first place, and you'll have to know how to heal your own hide in the event that it does dip in percentage.

For Healers: First of all if you're soloing things as a healer, you are A) bloody insane and B) a badass if you're actually pulling it off. In general, with the exception of perhaps Discipline Priests and maaaaaaybe Restoration Druids specced into Heart of the Wild, most healers these days don't have a whole pile of consistent hurt to put out there. Likewise, the majority of healers lack enough personal defense cooldowns to rotate through a given fight. Some do, some don't; the mileage may vary. What I'm getting at is that soloing as someone in a healing specialization may not necessarily get the best results due to either enrage timers or hard hitting mechanics. I shall not deter you from your goals though. If you wish to solo content as a healing type, you go out there and get on with your fancy self.

2. Be aware of EVERYTHING

To semi-contradict the title of the previous point I made, not all raiding habits should be thrown out of the window. Certain things such as getting out of the fire as quickly as possible and watching your timers? Great habits to hold on to. While yes, there are many encounters where the mechanics can now pretty much be ignored, there are still plenty of situations where you'll want to avoid the bad, damage x component of y boss at z time, take down adds so that they don't nuke you, burn down that boss before he can push you six feet under, heal at this time, move when that happens, etc. This goes double for you if you're going for achievements, since many of those are "Don't get hit by this!" or "Kill x of that!" You'll need to watch your feet, your health, the boss' positioning, buffs/debuffs, possibly dispells, interrupts...all the things that you'd usually have 9 or 24 other brains and sets of hands helping you take care of, all by yourself.

It's as if your raid awareness suddenly needs to be hopped up on coffee. The special kind.

3. Know thine utility

Unless you're a high(er) end PvP type, or on the cutting edge of PvE content, changes are pretty good that you may only be aware of a small fraction of the toolkit available to you. It personally took me many years to learn fully understand how important it was to use Shamanistic Rage as a defense cooldown (heck, for a while in ICC it was a DPS cooldown of all things...). With the added utility that has been added into Mists of Pandaria, I'll even admit that there are times when I forget to use certain totems in certain situations (Capacitor Totem is notoriously forgotten by many shaman, yours truly included sometimes). Soloing content will often force you to think outside the box as far as your cooldowns and bag of tricks are concerned. Dismiss nothing in your toolkit. Become familiar with how certain cooldowns may interact with each other, if you're not already. Test out which utility spells help you out in which situation. Push your limits, your knowledge, and if you seem to be falling short, start digging to learn more. Never stop playing mad scientist.

4. Know the fight

Yes, this might be a /facepalm tip but it really does pay to know the mechanics of a fight, even if most of those mechanics no longer necessarily apply. If you cannot kill something within your "zerg" window, you may find yourself having to play nice with mechanics. You may have to roll defensive CDs to mitigate Patchwerks Hateful Strikes. You're going to have to be aware that all three body parts of Mimiron will need to die within a certain time frame from each other in the final phase or things on him will gain health back. And of course, if you're an achievement chaser, you absolutely will need to know how both the achievement works and the mechanics of the boss. A little knowledge can go a long way in preventing frustrations and achievement failure.

5. Know your limits

Soloing is part character level, part gear, part skill, and sometimes even part luck. Some raids are easier to solo once you hit x level plateau. Some boss mechanics are impossible to deal with until you manage to hit y gearing threshold. Many fights have RNG aspects to them that may frustrate you. All of these aspects can affect you to varying degrees depending on your skill level on any given character; some encounters may be neigh on impossible for you until another aspect of the presented equation shifts. It is my firm belief that if you want to solo something, give it a couple of shots. Try anything once, if only for the laughs. If you manage to down it, great! If not, know when it's time to leave it be until you manage to get your mits on better gear or you familiarize yourself with your chosen class/spec further. Not all classes or specs can solo all of the things at the same time. A Blood DK can solo certain content much sooner than an Enhancement Shaman. An Enhancer can solo a lot more currently than say, a Holy Priest. Test the limits of your chosen role, but don't push yourself to the point where you hate what you're doing. Know your personal limits and the limits of your class.

Overall, taking on old content by one's own self is a bit like spinning plates. You need to be aware of a lot of things at once, and if you muck up the balance on one of the plates, everything may come tumbling down. It's all on you and you alone. It can be a bit overwhelming at first, but I think that's the beauty of it, personally. There's no blaming Cindy for missing her taunt, can't complain to Bob for not getting his heal off in time, and Jackie can't be yelled at for not DPSing hard enough. It's all you.

Soloing is a testament to your skill, patience, and I personally think that it shows a certain sort of dedication to your chosen character. It's not always easy, nor is it always pretty. It may come more naturally to some than it does to others, and that's perfectly okay. When you're soloing, you're not on anyone's schedule. No one but you can get frustrated at your mistakes or get huffy when you want to AFK for 30 minutes to grab a bite to eat or get the kids to bed. No one will ever breathe down your neck for not making enough progress in your allotted window. You take everything on in your own time, at your own pace.

One final tip I can give and cannot stress enough is this: Have fun with it. Try to view soloing not as some chore that needs to be done for x item, but as an opportunity to learn a few things about yourself as a player. You may find that you have certain strengths and weaknesses that you weren't aware of before. Soloing is an excellent time to work out some kinks in your playstyle, not to mention to have a little bit of in game *you* time. Again, have fun with it and roll with the punches. Now get out there and do your thang.

A Giving of Appreciation

2012-11-23T06:27:00.001-06:00

We've once again arrived to that time of year where many of us American types stuff our faces with turkey and give thanks for the things we are fortunate enough to have. Friends, family, luck and love. The things needn't be big, for it's often the small things in life that mean the most. Regardless of what it is that we have been fortunate enough to receive, now is the time of year when we reground ourselves and shine a light on all of the things we should be thankful for.

I am, by and large, a pretty awkward person when it comes to receiving anything. It matters not if these "things" are actually items, nor does it matter if it's a non-material item. While a simple "thank you" may escape from my lips, I often feel that it's inadequate. More than likely that in my excitement to be given anything, big or small, I'm too busy in my complete joy to ever properly thank someone for their time, effort, or thoughtfulness.

While this post will remain broad, the thoughts are true and I hope that each and every one of you is able to identify yourself within these words.

For those of you who have ever participated with the Twitterland Raiding project: Whether you were one of the folks who showed up to every run possible or attended only one, led raids or simply showed up, or if you sat on the sidelines while supporting us in whatever way you could, from the bottom of my heart I thank you. TLR became a guild away from our guilds, was truly an unforgettable experience, and couldn't have been pulled off without the help of everyone. I look forward to the day when we can all go rock some old raids together once again! (We will be back once things calm down in a few months. Please don't take my use of past tense as a meaning that TLR is done, far from it!)

To those of you in the Twitter community who interact with me on a regular basis or simply follow me: Thank you for your kindness and support! The Twitter WoW community is truly unlike any other. You all make it a fantastic place to hang out and babble. Don't go changin', you all are fabulous!

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To the blogging community: Thanks for always being an inspiration and for prompting this post. You all were what got me writing in the first place, and while I don't comment as much as I used to (not that I've ever been a regular commentator...sorry!) I still do poke my head in from time to time and take in what you all have to say. Keep doing what you do, so long as it's where your heart belongs.

To my guild: While there's a slim chance that any of the guys would ever read this, I must give my thanks to them as well. Much like any dysfunctional family, they often irritate the shit out of me and make me rage. At the same time though, they help me do what I like to do (raid) and more often than not give me a few laughs while doing so. While there are a lot of pretty heavy wrinkles to iron out with how we operate (personal opinion), I don't think I could have ever found a better home on Aggramar. Y'all are a bunch of peckerheads, but I adore each and every one of you. Except for that one guy. Who is that anyways?

To the people that have been in my life, past and present: Thank you for whatever times we've had, good or bad. Each of you has given me a different perspective on life, another way at looking at the world, a lesson in humanity. You've all taught me, given to me, shared memorable moments with me. While I may no longer speak to some of you, or only converse with some of you sparsely, keep in mind that I still think back on the old times. My memory is pretty poor when it comes to "Hey, I haven't spoken with so-and-so in a while, I should get together with them" but I DO manage to remember a lot of the past. You are not forgotten. Thank you for the memories of the past, thank you for your love, support, thoughts, and whatever else you give now. My words will never, ever encompass my true thanks for it all, but please know that it is all greatly appreciated, no matter the size of the gesture.

Finally, to my readers: First, I must apologize for neglecting to write as often as I used to. My creative dry spells and distractions have been pretty rampant for quite some time now. Thank you for your patience and for always coming back when something new finally comes up. For those of you who are just starting to read my babblings, welcome and thank you for stopping by! I thank each and every one of you for your support, whether you just swing by to check a specific reference post or are an avid reader. Half of the fun of blogging is the interaction. While the interaction here on WoS is usually pretty low key, I do love and appreciate seeing links popping in from other sites. That traffic proves that I'm doing something right for you guys, even if it's on a small scale. Again, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for the support you give me, regardless of how you go about it. As always, please never hesitate to ask questions, as answering your questions is one of the few ways I feel like I can properly give back to you all for digging my work.

From the bottom of my heart, you all have my love, adoration, and admiration. While I may often be overly quiet and sometimes act a bit too elusive, please keep in mind that each and everyone of you, and the things you do, are in my thoughts.

Alright, I think I'm through with being all mushy for now. I hope you all have a great rest of this holiday weekend (or for those of you non-American folks, a great weekend in general) and I shall catch you all on the next post.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Art of Soloing - What's Soloable By Enhancement, The Raid Edition

2012-11-05T10:52:00.000-06:00

If you're any sort of forum goer, you may have noticed that there's one topic that comes up on a semi-regular basis: What content is currently soloable by my spec/class?

As of the end of Cataclysm, I have really gotten into the "let's see what I can solo as enhancement!" thing. I love pushing myself in a familiar environment while having to rely 100% on my own skill to down something. Plus, you know, mounts. I know that there are similar souls out there, similar souls that may have not yet taken the time to go out and solo those dragons but are still curious as to what bosses are doable by oneself in what gear.

The following list will be updated as I tackle more content, thus is currently incomplete. Keep in mind that unless otherwise noted, this list assumes that you're level 90 with at least some gear on you.

Classic
- Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj (20): Soloable
- Molten Core: Soloable
- Blackwing Lair: Soloable, though Razorgore is a pain
- Temple of Ahn'Qiraj (40): Soloable

Burning Crusade
- Karazhan: Soloable
- Magtheridon's Lair: Soloable
- Gruul's Lair: Soloable
- Serpentshrine Cavern: Soloable
- The Battle for Mount Hyjal: Soloable, though trash before Kaz'rogal is buggy
- Tempest Keep: Soloable (Kael'thas Guide)
- The Black Temple: Soloable
- Sunwell Plateau: Unknown

Wrath of the Lich King 10
- Vault of Archavon: 10 man Soloable
- The Obsidian Sanctum: 10 man 3D Soloable
- Eye of Eternity: 10 man Soloable
- Naxxramas: 10 man Soloable
- Ulduar: 10 Unknown The Siege, The Antechamber, The Keepers, The Decent Into Madness + Algalon
- Trial of the Crusader: 10 man normal Soloable, 10 man heroic Unknown
- Onyxia's Lair: 10 man Soloable (at 85, assuming you have Dragon Soul gear)
- Icecrown Citadel: 10 man normal Unknown (very 2 mannable though!), 10 man heroic Unknown
- Ruby Sanctum: 10 man normal Soloable/heroic Unknown

Wrath of the Lich King 25
- Vault of Archavon: 25 man Unknown
- The Obsidian Sanctum: 25 man 3D Soloable (heroic t14 or 522 geared)
- Eye of Eternity: 25 man Soloable (tier 14)
- Naxxramas: 25 man Partially Soloable (tier 14) - Arachnid and Plague Quarters, Sapphiron, and a few other bosses are soloable, though you'll want a friend along for Patchwerk, Instructor Razuvious, and possibly Kel'thuzad yet.
- Ulduar: 25 Unknown
- Trial of the Crusader: 25 man normal/heroic Unknown
- Onyxia's Lair: 25 man Soloable (level 90 heroic 5 man)
- Icecrown Citadel: 25 man normal/heroic Not Soloable at this time
- Ruby Sanctum: 25 man normal/heroic Unknown

Cataclysm
- Blackwing Descent: 10/25 normal/heroic Unknown
- Throne of the Four Winds: 10/25 normal/heroic Unknown
- Bastion of Twilight: 10/25 normal/heroic Unknown
- Firelands: 10/25 normal/heroic Unknown
- Dragon Soul: 10/25 normal/heroic Unknown

The links found on this list will direct you to the videos I've taken whilst soloing these instances, if you'd care to see how I bumbled through it.

In the future I do plan on ~~writing up~~ making "How To" video guides on the raids that I solo (or just have a videos showing me pulling off the act), which will also be linked back to this list. Until that time comes though, I definitely encourage each and every one of you to go out and try to solo some of these raids. If not for the mounts/pets/transmog gear, then do it for the thrill of a challenge!

MoP Enhancement Shaman - Need To Know Guide (90)

2012-10-18T10:32:00.000-05:00

Yes, this is a nearly identical post from the original Need To Know guide that I did shortly after 5.0.4 dropped. I have however tweaked a few things so now it reflects what you need to know as a level 90 enhancement shaman.

What's Changed

Stats
- Hit and expertise caps are no longer what they were. You need 7.5% hit and 7.5% expertise, respectively. 7.5% = 2550, or 2210 for those of you who have racial bonuses that grant hit or expertise.
- Haste is no longer completely garbage. Currently at level 90 mastery, haste, and crit are all roughly equal, with mastery and haste been a smidge above crit. Depending on your level of gear, haste or mastery may pull ahead as the prime stat. As it's looking right now, it seems that mastery will still scale and perform slightly better than haste with the standard Echo of Elements and Unleashed Fury build, with haste possibly being more preferred for the burst builds containing Elemental Mastery and/or Primal Elementalist. To be sure which stat build is best for you, it is advised that you run your current set up through a Sim to insure optimal performance.

Mechanics
- Searing Flames (x5) no longer build up on a target; instead they stack on us, making target switching less of a pain.
- Buff totems have become auras, thus our clunky totem bar is gone. What totems you have left are now cooldown-type deals, save for the Searing and Magma totems.
- Our Fire Elemental has had his CD reduced to 5 minutes and should reset once an encounter is either completed or a wipe has occured. He now gives us Searing Flames, which makes him not only a viable totem to use, but a rather powerful CD.
- Our Earth Elemental can now be considered to be a minor DPS CD. He WILL taunt the bosses found in 5 man heroic dungeons. He will not however taunt actual raid bosses, thus is safe to use in a raiding situation.
- Feral Spirits have lost their control bar. Because of this change, we no longer have their stun ability. However, Spirit Walk is now a separate ability that has a relatively short CD, especially when glyphed.
- Pets such as our Feral Spirits and our Fire/Earth Elemental totems will no longer "snap shot" stats and will adjust to your current procs and stats as they roll out. No more double-dipping on Heroism for your puppies, but no more sitting around for the proc-gods to line up either.

Rotation
- Stormstrike and Lightning Bolt have moved up on the priority order some. Otherwise, our rotation is nearly the same as it has been.

Spec
For the most part, you'll be adjusting your spec on a per-fight basis. I'm going to suggest talents that you'd generally use on say a Patchwerk-type encounter. Please note that specs are no longer of a "set it and forget it" mindset; adjust to your needs accordingly!

Tier 1: Stone Bulwark Totem or Astral Shift - SBT = for those times that you need a bit longer duration of protection. AS = for those moments when you need 40% damage reduction, but only for a short moment of time (think soaking on H-Ultraxion).

Tier 2: Earthgrab Totem or Windwalk Totem - Both of these have minor utility uses, but will probably be rarely needed in a PvE environment.

Tier 3: Call of Elements or Totemic Restoration. CoE will allow you to use your Healing Stream Totem more often (which your healers will love you for). Totemic Restoration has some niche uses, such as possibly being able to use your Fire Elemental totem for a quick burst phase (think Spine tendons), and then pulling him back early so that he's up sooner. Needs some toying with to see if it'll work for you on an given encounter. Totemic Projection *might* have some incredibly niche uses, but it's fairly rare that an enhancer needs to toss a totem anywhere but at their feet.

Tier 4: All three talents at level 90 are nearly on par with each other. However, Echo of Elements is probably one of our stronger general use talents, while Elemental Mastery is great for more bursty situations (again, think Spine tendons).

Tier 5: From the numbers I've seen over at TotemSpot, it's looking like Ancestral Guidance is beating out Healing Tide Totem as far as potential healing output is concerned for enhancement.

Tier 6: All three talents are fairly close to each other, even with the various combinations from tier 4. As it stands currently though, Unleash Fury is the top performing talent on a most fights. The other talent option would more than likely be Primal Elementalist, with Elemental Blast kind of being a complete 'meh' choice due to both output and its casting requirement.

Glyphs
- ~~There is only one major glyph that is required: Flame Shock. All other glyphs are utility and should be used according to the encounter you are facing.~~Glyph of Flame Shock has been changed! It now causes Flame Shock to heal for 50% of the damage it does. This is a 5.2 patch change.
- There is only one minor glyph that has a non-cosmetic function: Lava Lash. This glyph is necessary in those situations where you don't want to break CC via spreading your Flame Shocks around, or if a boss fight requires you to control your cleaving (think achivement runs; those of you who have run with me on things like ToGC through TLR and remember me saying "don't use FS!", yeah this fixes that). It's just a "per basis" sort of glyph, like many of the majors.

Utility Totems
- Stormlash Totem is a wicked little thing that buffs the raid for 10 seconds, causing them to pump out some extra nature damage. Naturally (har har) this gets slightly buffed through our own mastery. Sadly it's on a five minute cooldown and isn't reset through Call of Elements. Also, does not stack with other Stormlash Totems.
- Healing Steam Totem no longer works like the old, static HST. This one is a single target SMART heal, which will always try to choose the target with the lowest health. Can have its timer reset by the talent Call of Elements.

If you wish to read more in detail about each of the spells, glyphs, and various other enhancement-related MoPish things, please take a look at the Enhancement Guide for Mists of Pandaria, which can be found over on TotemSpot.

5.2 edit: I wrote another Need To Know post regarding the changes for talents. A video guide containing all of the information found in this post, the 5.2 post, and other adjustments that have not yet been discussed is currently in the works.

Saz Lives! And Updates.

2012-10-10T03:42:00.000-05:00

Hey guys, just swinging by the blog to let you all know that I have NOT completely fallen off of the face of the Earth. Mists of Pandaria is keeping be extremely busy, between the mounds of dailies and raiding, so it might be a bit before I return to make any sort of content for this particular space or my fanfiction blog.

Here's a heads up on the projects I have been working on/plan to get to in the near future:

1) Mists of Pandaria Enhancement Raiding Guide - This guide has been a collaborative effort, with me writing pretty much all of the fluff stuff while Purge took care of the theorycrafty/gearing stuff and Platform did up all of the rotational stuff. This guide should in theory be cross-posted to the general forums, MMO-Champ, and possibly even EJ soonish, but I have no eta on that. Keep in mind that there will be adjustments made to the guide within the next few weeks, once the theorycrafting boys get a free moment. For now though, enjoy and I hope it helps!

2) Raiding Videos - Yes, I've been at it again with the PoV videos. I haven't been doing any fancy editing with the most recent kill videos (you get to hear us scream and swear, what fun!), but I do plan on eventually getting around to doing some how-to guides here on WoS when I get a moment. I need to get a solid grip on the encounters myself before I feel even remotely capable of passing on any "tips" to my readers after all! Until then, you can watch me derp around on Youtube.

3) UI Walk Through - This is a project that I hope to record by sometime this coming weekend. I've had several people on Twitter, Youtube itself, and even an email about my UI, plus I always have guild mates bugging me about how I set up this or that. Since the UI portion of my blog needs an update anyways, I'll be killing many birds with one stone. If such a thing interests you, keep your eyes peeled! It should be coming soon.

4) General Blog Updates - Several aspects of WoS are kind of completely outdated, especially the guide links. Fixes coming as soon as I get a moment!

5) Twitterland Raiding - Currently suspended until further notice! Well, the site is still very much there for everyone to use, but I still personally will not be raid leading anything until the dust settles with t14 raid progression, which may be a while yet with how the time tables are laid out for raid releases. I do plan on raid leading a few Firelands achievement runs, as all as a few DS runs. More Ulduar and ICC is also in the plans, and we'll more than likely also do a few more Herald runs for those who missed out.

6) Twitterland Raiding on Steam - This is kind of old news by now and I'm sure I've mentioned it, but Twitterland Raiding is also on Steam! If you want to hook up with your Twitter buddies on the Steam community, there's the place to do it. You all can thank Binkenstein for that one. I think it's pretty neat anyways, even if I don't have much time for Steam goodness.

7) Other projects - Yes, I know. I need more projects like I need holes in my head. I'm hoping to at some point work on a solo Podcasty-type project. However, I have yet to find the time to properly research all of the aspects to cover my butt (bandwidth to monetary requirement ratios, as my budget is still very much at zero; things of the legal nature, if there are any; etc) so I don't have a ton of information on that for the moment. I will however be bugging you all at some point for opinions/participation in that project, if I give it a go!

Since I'm pretty slack at posting these days, if you have any interest on my latest projects/internet postings, you can always find me linking things over on my WoW-based Facebook account or on Twitter. I'm always babbling on Twitter, so beware of that, but Facebook is generally only used for project linking and the occasional screen shot. I've also been trying (and failing quite well) to use my Tumblr account more often. The plan was to do a whole series of pictures involving my ginger mug and my bandana collection, mainly because I know you're all just dying to see both. I'll get back to it eventually, but for now MoP has gotten in the way. It's in the "eh, I'll get to it eventually" pile.

Anyways, a lot of things on my crazy plate, as per usual. I will return to everything at some point. I will get all of my things accomplished, it's just a lot of waiting while I muddle through it all. One thing at a time, eh?

Enhancement Shaman Gearlist - Mogu'shan Vaults

2012-09-08T10:43:00.000-05:00

Here's a list of the gear that will be available from Mogu'shan Vaults. This is by no means a Best in Slot (BiS) list, just a place to start when looking for potential upgrades.

Helm: None
Neck: Amulet of the Hidden Kings, The Spirit Kings LFR/Normal/Heroic
Shoulder: None
Cloak: Arrow Breaking Windcloak, Feng the Accursed & The Spirit Kings LFR/Normal/Heroic
Chest: Stonefang Chestguard, Stone Guardians LFR/Normal/Heroic
Waist: Fetters of Death, Gara'jal the Spiritbinder LFR/Normal/Heroic
Legs: Subetai's Pillaging Leggings, The Spirit Kings LFR/Normal/Heroic
Feet: Wildfire Worldwalkers, Feng the Accursed LFR/Normal/Heroic
Wrist: Stonemaw Armguards, Stone Guardians LFR/Normal/Heroic
Hands: Grips of Terra Cotta, Jan-xi LFR/Normal/Heroic

Ring: Feng's Seal of Binding, Feng the Accursed LFR/Normal/Heroic (Link MIA for the moment)

Trinket: Bottle of Infinite Stars, Elegon LFR/Normal/Heroic

Weapon: Gara'kal, Fist of the Spiritbinder LFR/Normal/Heroic

At the time of the making of this list, Wowhead does not have listed where each piece of tier drops. I will however include the list of tier 14 here.

Head: Firebird's Helmet LFR/Normal/Heroic
Shoulders: Firebird's Spaulders LFR/Normal/Heroic
Chest: Firebird's Cuirass LFR/Normal/Heroic
Legs: Firebird's Legguards LFR/Normal/Heroic
Hands: Firebird's Grips LFR/Normal/Heroic

Enhancement Shaman 5.0.4 - Need To Know Guide

2012-09-05T15:00:00.001-05:00

I know, I know, 5.0 launched a week ago and I'm kind of late to this guide party. You know what though? I'm going to do up a quick little guide anyways, for those of you who don't care to wade through every little detail..

What's Changed

Stats
- Hit and expertise caps are no longer what they were. You need 7.5% hit and 7.5% expertise, respectively. 7.5% = 768, or 666 for those of you who have racial bonuses that grant hit or expertise.
- Haste is no longer completely garbage. Currently at level 85 mastery, haste, and crit are all roughly equal, with mastery and haste been a smidge above crit. Depending on your level of gear, haste or mastery may pull ahead as the prime stat. Honestly, with only a little over two weeks until MoP's release (at the time of me writing this post), those of you who have been mastery stacking can continue to do so. Feel free to pick up the Starcatcher Compass now though if you happen to come across it, as it'll no longer break my heart if you use it ; )

Mechanics
- Searing Flames (x5) no longer build up on a target; instead they stack on us, making target switching less of a pain.
- Buff totems have become auras, thus our clunky totem bar is gone. What totems you have left are now cooldown-type deals, save for the Searing and Magma totems.
- Our Fire Elemental has had his CD reduced to 5 minutes and should reset once an encounter is either completed or a wipe has occured. He now gives us Searing Flames, which makes him not only a viable totem to use, but a rather powerful CD.
- Feral Spirits have lost their control bar. Because of this change, we no longer have their stun ability. However, Spirit Walk is now a separate ability that has a relatively short CD, especially when glyphed.
- Pets such as our Feral Spirits and our Fire/Earth Elemental totems will no longer "snap shot" stats and will adjust to your current procs and stats as they roll out. No more double-dipping on Heroism for your puppies, but no more sitting around for the proc-gods to line up either.

Rotation
- Stormstrike and Lightning Bolt have moved up on the priority order some. Otherwise, our rotation is nearly the same as it has been.

Spec
For the most part, you'll be adjusting your spec on a per-fight basis. I'm going to suggest talents that you'd generally use on say a Patchwerk-type encounter. Please note that specs are no longer of a "set it and forget it" mindset; adjust to your needs accordingly!

Tier 1: Stone Bulwark Totem or Astral Shift - SBT = for those times that you need a bit longer duration of protection. AS = for those moments when you need 40% damage reduction, but only for a short moment of time (think soaking on H-Ultraxion).

Tier 2: Earthgrab Totem or Windwalk Totem - Both of these have minor utility uses, but will probably be rarely needed in a PvE environment.

Tier 3: Call of Elements or Totemic Restoration. CoE will allow you to use your Healing Stream Totem more often (which your healers will love you for). Totemic Restoration has some niche uses, such as possibly being able to use your Fire Elemental totem for a quick burst phase (think Spine tendons), and then pulling him back early so that he's up sooner. Needs some toying with to see if it'll work for you on an given encounter. Totemic Projection *might* have some incredibly niche uses, but it's fairly rare that an enhancer needs to toss a totem anywhere but at their feet.

Tier 4: All three talents at level 90 are nearly on par with each other. However, at 85 Echo of Elements is probably one of our stronger general use talents, while Elemental Mastery is great for more bursty situations (again, think Spine tendons).

Tier 5: From the latest numbers I've been seeing over at TotemSpot, it's looking like Ancestral Guidance is beating out Healing Tide Totem as far as potential healing output is concerned.

Tier 6: N/A at 85, but here's the skinny for when you hit 90. All three talents are pretty darn close to each other, even with the various combinations from tier 4. As it stands currently though, Unleash Fury is the top performing talent on a stationary fight. The other two talents my prove themselves more useful for other types of encounters.

Glyphs
- There is only one major glyph that is required: Flame Shock. All other glyphs are utility and should be used according to the encounter you are facing.
- There is only one minor glyph that has a non-cosmetic function: Lava Lash. This glyph is necessary in those situations where you don't want to break CC via spreading your Flame Shocks around, or if a boss fight requires you to control your cleaving (think achivement runs; those of you who have run with me on things like ToGC through TLR and remember me saying "don't use FS!", yeah this fixes that). It's just a "per basis" sort of glyph, like many of the majors.

Utility Totems
- Stormlash Totem is a wicked little thing that buffs the raid for 10 seconds, causing them to pump out some extra nature damage. Naturally (har har) this gets slightly buffed through our own mastery. Sadly it's on a five minute cooldown and isn't reset through Call of Elements. Also, does not stack with other Stormlash Totems.
- Healing Steam Totem no longer works like the old, static HST. This one is a single target SMART heal, which will always try to choose the target with the lowest health. Can have its timer reset by the talent Call of Elements.

Alright, this post has already become more extensive than I intended it to be. If you wish to read more in detail about each of the spells, glyphs, and various other enhancement-related MoPish things, please take a look at Purge's Enhancement Primer over on TotemSpot.

TNB - Come Here Me Babble Live!

2012-09-02T08:45:00.000-05:00

That's right ladies and gents, I will once again have the honor of hanging out with the Twisted Nether Blogcast Crew TONIGHT. It's short notice, I know I know.

What should you expect? Well, it'll be a Patch 5.0.4 roundtable! This roundtable will have the likes of Cymre from Bubbles of Mischief, Jed from Jed’s Corner of WoW Shenanigans, Stop from The Stoppable Force, and of course myself. Should be a good, chatty time!

When: Sunday, September 2, 8pm PT (11pm ET), or whatever time this time converter says that is for you.
Where: Either the TNB Live Show page, or their Ustream page.

If you have questions that you wish to be asked on the show, send those in to info@twistednether.net with a quickness!

I hope to see you in the chat room!

Shaman & Feral/Guardian Resource Dump

2012-08-31T23:30:00.007-05:00

I have been running across many class guides as of late that contain solid information on the 5.0.4 class changes. I personally have had no real time to put together any sort of guide myself, so here, have some links! Yes, I am including links for all three shaman specs as I have been playing with all three as of late, and I will be including feral/guardian guides as well since they pertain to my interests with my druid, who is my favorite and most used alt. This post is just as much for me as it is for you!

Be warned, some of the info found in some of these guides may potentially be out of date, thus making the information in them somewhat incorrect. Much of the information in these guides are subject to change as Blizz continues to balance the classes. As always, please check and double check on the information you read about! Cross-referencing information is the only way to be sure that you're getting the correct information.

Shaman
Totemspot - This site is run by the wonderful Mr. Binkenstein. If you can't find solid shaman theorycrafting, look no further. While the site is heavily elemental-focused, it does have some very solid enhancement shaman working behind the scenes (namely Purge, who is a beast with the numbers), and tries overall not to neglect the other specs. Still trying to wrangle in a few more restos to the site ; )

Enhancement
Purge's Enhancement Primer for 5.0.4 - Found over on Totemspot. Purge has also done an excellent post on haste for enhancement shaman, which can be found here.
EJ's Enhancement Guide - For those of you who prefer walls of text and in-depth info ; )
Totem Talk: What to expect when you're enhancing - A great little blog post by the one and only Elam over on WowInsider.

Elemental
Binkenstein's Elemental Primer for 5.0.4 - This article is found over on Totemspot. I highly recommend digging around on there for all of Binks' ele-related posts.
5.0.4 Elemental Changes - This article is found on the blog called Elemental Entropy. Looks like there's a good chunk of info in there, so definitely give it a look see!
Totem Talk: Surviving playing elemental in 5.0.4 - Another great blog post by Elam over on WowInsider.

Restoration
Life in Group 5's 5.0 Guide - An excellent over view of the changes between the recent patches. If you're a resto shaman who doesn't follow that blog yet, I definitely recommend doing so!
EJ's Resto Guide - A very in depth look at restoration. Great stuff within!
Healiocentric's Resto Guide - A new blogger on the block, but definitely has some good in depth break downs of the new heal information. Also be sure to dig around on that blog for healing information on other classes as well.
Totem Talk: Surviving patch 5.04 as a restoration shaman - A blog post by Mr. Lodur over on WowInsider; a definite must-read.
Resto Shaman 5.0 Guide - A very nicely put together resto guide over at Spiritwalker's Grace.

Druid
The Fluid Druid - Your one stop shop for all of your druid needs. Alaron has been the cat to go to for quite some time as far as feral is concerned, but the man has been busy with dabbling in the other three specs as well. If you're into monks, you should check out his other project called World of Monkcraft.

Feral
Alaron's 5.0 Feral DPS Guide - This was Alaron's post on the official forums. Good stuff there!

Guardian
Guardian Patch 5.0.4 Survival Guide - This is the ever so excellent guide that can be found over at the Inconspicuous Bear. Extremely in depth, incredibly well done. The Inc Bear mostly covers the tanking aspect for druids, but also do some cat stuff! Definitely check out their forums when you get a chance.

Edit: I've been continually tweaking this list. I have removed some guides from the line-up due to inaccurate information, while others have been added as I trust them to be trust worthy sources.

Enhancement Pre-Raid Gearlist for MoP

2012-08-18T18:11:00.002-05:00

This post is a bit of a work in progress. I'm simply going to list all of the reputation, crafted, and dungeon gear here. Later on I'll hopefully get around to a "pre-raid" BiS list of sorts. If I have missed anything, please point it out to me and I'll happily add it.

Factions
Shadow-Pan
The Kaxxi
Golden Lotus
The August Celestials

Valor Points
Helm - Hawkmaster's Headguard (Shadow-Pan - Revered)
Neck - Choker of the Klaxxi'va (Klaxxi - Revered)
Shoulder - Windwalker Spaulders (Golden Lotus - Revered)
Cloak - Blackguard Cape (Shado-Pan - Revered)
Chest - Breastplate of the Golden Pagoda (Golden Lotus - Revered)
Bracers - Tiger-Striped Wristguards (August Celestials - Revered)
Hands - Sentinel Commander's Gauntlets (August Celestials - Revered)
Belt - Klaxxi Lash of the Winnower (Klaxxi - Revered)
Pants - Locus Swarm Legguards (Klaxxi - Revered)
Boots - Steps of the War Serpent (August Celestials - Revered)

Ring 1 - Anji's Keepsake (Golden Lotus - Revered)
Ring 2 - None

Trinket 1 - Hawkmaster's Talon (Shadow-Pan - Revered)
Trinket 2 - None

Weapons - None

Items Per Faction
Shadow-Pan: 3
The Klaxxi: 3
The August Celestials: 3
Golden Lotus: 3

Justic Points
Helm - None
Neck - Amulet of Swirling Mists (Golden Lotus - Honored)
Shoulder - None
Cloak - Bladesong Cloak (August Celestials - Honored)
Chest - Undergrowth Stalker Chestpiece (August Celestials - Honored)
Bracers - Entombed Traitor's Wristguards (Klaxxi - Honored)
Hands - Brushcutter's Gloves (Shadow-Pan - Honored)
Belt - None
Pants - Leggings of Twisted Vines (Golden Lotus - Honored)
Boots - None

Ring 1 - Mark of the Dancing Crane (Shadow-Pan - Honored)
Ring 2 - None

Trinket 1 - Shado-Pan Dragon Gun (Shadow-Pan - Honored) - Maybe, if it scales with our mastery bonuses.
Trinket 2 - None

Weapons - None

Items Per Faction
Shadow-Pan: 2-3
Golden Lotus: 2
The August Celestials: 2
The Klaxxi: 1

Professions
Helm - Deadly Retinal Armor - Engineering (600) Epic *
Neck - Golembreaker Amulet - Jewelcrafting (575) Rare
Chest - Raiment of Blood and Bone - Leatherworking (600) Epic
Chest - Chestguard of Earthen Harmony - Leatherworking (600) Epic
Gloves - Raven Lord's Gloves - Leatherworking (600) Epic
Gloves - Gloves of Earthen Harmony - Leatherworking (600) Epic

Ring - Roguestone Shadowband - Jewelcrafting (575) Rare
Trinket - Ghost Iron Dragonling - Engineering (550) Rare
Trinket - Quilen Statuette - Archaeology (??) Rare
Trinket - Zen Alchemist Stone - Alchemy, Quest (500) Rare *

*Requires you to be proficient in the profession to equip.

Darkmoon Faire
Trinket - Relic of Xuen

Dungeons
Gate of the Setting Sun
Ring - Pulled Grenade Pin - Saboteur Kip'tilak
Belt - Impaler's Girdle - Striker Ga'dok
Helm - Swarmcall Helm - Commander Ri'mok
Boots - Treads of Fixation - Raigonn

Mogu'shan Palace
Helm - Crest of the Clan Lords - Kuai the Brute
Weapon - Claws of Gekken - Gekken
Bracers - Groundshaker Bracers - Xin the Weaponmaster

Scarlet Halls
Houndmaster Braun - Nothing
Shoulder - Harlan's Shoulders - Armsmaster Harlan
Belt - Bindburner Belt - Flameweaver Koegler
Neck - Scorched Scarlet Key - Flameweaver Koegler

Scarlet Monestary
Legs - Legguards of the Crimson Magus - Thalnos the Soulrender
Brother Korloff - Nothing
Trinket - Flashing Steel Talisman - High Inquisitor Whitemane

Scholomance
Instructor Chillheart - Nothing
Jandice Barov - Nothing
Boots - Bone Golem Boots - Rattlegore
Lilian Voss - Nothing
Trinket - Searing Words - Darkmaster Gandling

Shado-Pan Monastery
Chest - Azure Serpent Chestguard - Gu Cloudstrike
Master Snowdrift - Nothing
Bracers - Bladed Smoke Bracers - Sha of Violence
Weapon - Crescent of Ichor - Sha of Violence
Weapon - Ke'eng, Breath of the Shadow - Taran Zhu
Ring - Seal of Hateful Meditation - Taran Zhu
Shoulders - Shadowspine Shoulderguards - Taran Zhu

Siege of Niuzao Temple
Neck - Engraved Amber Pendant - Vizier Jin'bak
Gloves - Archer's Precision Grips - Commander Vol'jak
Cloak - Aerial Bombardment Cloak - General Pa'valak
Chest - Galedodger Chestguard - Wing Leader Ner'onok
Weapon - Ner'onok's Razor Kater - Wing Leader Ner'onok

Stormstout Brewery
Ook-Ook - Nothing
Pants - Hopping Mad Leggings - Hoptallus
Weapon - Gao's Key Tapper - Yan-Zhu the Uncasked

Temple of the Jade Serpent
Cloak - Wind-Soaked Drape - Wise Mari
Trinket - Windswept Pages - Lorewalker Stonestep
Ring - Signet of Dancing Jade - Liu Flameheart
Hands - Hopecrusher Gauntlets - Sha of Doubt

A slightly different version of this list will be showing up over on Totem Spot. For you resto/elemental types, Binkenstein has already completed a list for you, which can be found here.

How To Enhance: Heroic Spine of Deathwing & Heroic Madness of Deathwing

2012-07-27T13:20:00.000-05:00

We are now in our eighth month in being saddled with Dragon Soul. The 30% buff has been presented to us, allowing some of us to burn even faster through this long-lived raid, and giving others a chance to finally take down what is undoubtedly the two most painful and unsatisfactory end game boss encounters.

Let me be incredibly blunt: the heroic modes of Spine of Deathwing and Madness of Deathwing are NOT the most friendly boss encounters for an enhancement shaman. With the nerfs Spine has become a little more forgiving for us, but the fast paced theme (for a DPSer anyways) of Madness leaves our numbers...well, it's been leaving me rather disappointed personally.

Heroic Spine of Deathwing

As I've said, Spine is not really a fight for enhancement. Our ability to pump out high burst damage on command is dismal. The DPS trinket recommended to use for this fight, the Kiroptyric Sigil, has a base stat of haste (which is complete and utter garbage until MoP). Oh, and good ol' Derpy McDerp Searing Totem would much rather wail away at anything BUT the exposed tendons. His preference target seems to almost always be the Corruptions.

Yeah, not an ideal fight for us.

Now the video above is from a restoration shaman's point of view in the fight. Why? Because of one major thing: the group that I run with has a less than ideal raid composition. There are essentially two basic builds you can go with this fight: A) 1 tank, 2 heal or B) 2 tank, 3 heal. To run set up A your group's tendon burst damage needs to be deliciously high. This means that you have yourself at least one, if not two, sub rogues (in a 10 man), and an arcane mage. Other classes such as warriors and feral kitties are also capable of some pretty fantastic burst tendon damage. We don't have this with my group. Adding myself and an offspec dps warrior unfortunately does not burn the extra 30-40% of the health left on the tendon of our usual burn phases, thus we are stuck with the harried B strategy.

Yeah, Spine is still the one fight that I'm stuck swing healing on. Healing with an agility flask and food buff ftw.

There's not a lot we can do to up our performance with our spec's current dismal performance on a burst fight like this, but there are a few things that can help maximize our potential - not to mention survivability - on this incredibly frustrating encounter.

Spec Changes:
None necessary

Glyph Changes:
Keep your standard Prime Glyphs. (Lava Lash, Stormstrike, Windfury)
Keep your semi-standard Major Glyphs (Lightning Shield, Ghost Wolf, Stoneclaw) If no one is putting out a fire resist aura of sorts, swap out Ghost Wolf for the Healing Stream glyph.

Totem Changes:
None, but you'll definitely want to be twisting in Stoneclaw totem throughout this fight.

Damage
1) Get yourself a Kiroptyric Sigil if you haven't already. Reforge the haste into mastery. You shouldn't be needing to reforge that haste into anything else if you're using the other, much more beneficial trinkets.

2) Macro the Sigil in with your puppies. I'm no macro queen, but the following is incredibly simple and works just fine.

/use Kiroptyric Sigil
/cast Feral Spirit

To get really fancy, you can also add in a target + pet attack command in there:

/tar Burning Tendon
/use Kiroptyric Sigil
/cast Feral Spirit
/petattack [target=playertarget]

Again, I'm no macro queen, so if you have suggestions on how to clean up a macro such as this, I'm all ears.

3) If you're an engineer like I am, and have a tenancy to macro your gloves to your wolves, be sure to not use that macro for the tendons. Why? The Sigil trinket and your gloves will set each other on a short cooldown. The Sigil's agility bonus is much greater than the one our gloves give us. For this fight, tie the trinket to your wolves and use your gloves as soon as they're off cd, assuming the tendon is still up. Otherwise you can save your gloves for doing a bit of damage on the amalgamation or while you're taking care of bloods.

4) Get yourself some decent weapons. This is the one fight where a pair of heroic Morningstar of Heroic Wills would possibly be better than regular version of a pair of No'Kaleds. Why would they be better? Well, you have a gem socket for more agility, plus the heroic Morningstars have more raw weapon damage than the regular NKs, plus you can also pick one of the rather crappy secondary stats on the Morningstar (probably the extra expertise) and reforge it into more mastery. The proc rates on the NKs, while delicious for any other encounter, become an unreliable factor for this fight; better to go with consistent raw damage than to rely on a proc.

Heroic Morningstar *might* also be a touch better than heroic No'Kaleds for this fight just because, again, you can net yourself a little more agility through the gem sockets plus you can still reforge into a bit more mastery. However, you do lose out on some raw weapon damage. It's kind of a tight call and I unfortunately do not have raw SIM data in front of me to confirm which would be better for this fight. Personally I'd just stick with my heroic NKs simply because I don't want to gem/enchant my heroic Morningstars. Yes, I'm that lazy/cheap. No I don't think I'll get any legitimate use out of the Morningstars anytime soon. /hangs head

5) As with the choice of going with the consistent damage of a pair of Morningstars as weapons, you want to try and avoid proc-based trinkets for this fight. If you have, say, either a combination of Wrath of Unchaining and either Vial of Shadows (if you're so lucky!) or a Matrix Restabilizer, you'll want to trade out either the Vial or Matrix for your Sigil trinket. Stacking trinkets such as WoU have an incredibly fast ramp up time, so you shouldn't need to worry about anything there. Take out the RNG trinkets, give yourself a little more control over your damage.

Survivability
There are a few difficult moments that your healers must deal with on this encounter.

1) Super Heated Nucleus; happens just before Nuclear Blast
2) Rolls
3) Searing Plasma + any damage you may be taking

My suggestion is to use a glyphed Stoneclaw totem for the amalgamation pulses that happen just before the Nuclear Blast. Use Shamanistic Rage during the rolls. Use any racial survivability/healing cooldowns you may have if your health is getting sketchy while you have the Searing Plasma debuff. If you feel the need to use your survival cooldowns elsewhere, go for it. Use them liberally. If you're dpsing in a 2 tank, 3 heal composition, your healers will thank you for whatever little help you can give them in the damage reduction department. Even with gear and with this being incredibly nerfed, Spine can be a healing intensive fight towards the end of the third plate, especially if you're having to do double lifts (aka exposing the tendon twice) on each plate.

Loot
Wrath of Unchaining - One of our two best in slot trinkets. Get this asap! (May your roll hacks be with you, if you run with a crapton of agility users like I do.)

Overall, this is an incredibly repetitive and boring fight. There is a ton of waiting around, then a mad rush to maximize dps the exposed tendon in a short span of time, then a ton of more waiting. Bring your sharpest weapons, a load of patience, and for the love of all things cuddly, teach your dogs not to randomly dive after a corruption. If you can do those things, you'll be well on your way to experiencing Deathwing's Madness.

Heroic Madness of Deathwing

Ahhhh madness, how frustrating you are. Once you manage to sweat and swear your way through his spine, you now get to deal with what is one of the most anticlimactic encounters you will ever face. Much like Spine, Madness is one of those fights that takes you 10 minutes of waiting around before the real hard parts of the encounter begins. Seriously, this fight is a cake walk until you hit the fourth platform. The forth platform and the head phase are the only really difficult parts of this fight, so you must do what you can to survive until those parts.

Kiss your sanity goodbye, my shaman friends.

Alright, this fight isn't all doom and gloom. Madness is by and large easier on us than Spine is, but it's still a fight that can leave you wanting to pull your hair out at the end of the day. Let's go through a few things that can help to ease yourself away from premature balding from scalpel abuse, shall we?

Spec Changes:
None necessary

Glyph Changes:
Keep your standard Prime Glyphs. (Lava Lash, Stormstrike, Windfury)
Keep your semi-standard Major Glyphs (Lightning Shield, Ghost Wolf, Stoneclaw) If no one is putting out a fire resist aura of sorts, swap out Ghost Wolf for the Healing Stream glyph.

Totem Changes:
Swapping to Magma totem on this fight may be beneficial if you can get it down just before the bloods spawn. If they've already spawned, don't bother wasting the extra GCD. If you see the ground doing it's bubbly thing and you can get over to it before the bloods become target-able, drop a Magma totem on their heads!

Twisting in Stoneclaw totem during heavy moments of damage is definitely recommended.

If your group's composition is a bit light on slows (hunter's ice patch traps, boomkin's mushrooms, DK's chilblains, etc) you'll want to be twisting in Earthbind totem to slow the bloods during the head phase of this encounter.

The Encounter
The differences between normal and heroic mode are few, but the few differences that are there can be rather deadly. Most groups now 1 tank, 2 heal this fight, which means that a dps must soak impales so that the tank may have his or her cooldowns up at key points, and that healing during certain situations can get rather tight.

If you watch the video closely, I'm often running away from the big bad floppy tentacly thing that spawns soon after the raid engages each new claw/wing tentacle. Why am I running? Because as an enhancement shaman I cannot eat an impale and survive, even with Shamanistic Rage and Stoneclaw totem up. No way, no how, I'm gonna die if I eat that impale. With my raid, we have a hunter soak the first impale of platforms 1-3, and then we have other dps help soak both impales of platform 3. During this time all melee must vacate the melee range of the Mutated Corruption; this tentacle will focus the impale on the person in melee range with the highest threat. Guess what, because of Misdirect a hunter will probably have much less threat than any melee. The same theory applies if you're using a shadow priest to soak. Having a rogue soak an impale is kind of a toss up, but because of Tricks of the Trade, chances are again that they will have less threat than you do as an enhancement shaman.

General rule of thumb: if a dps is soaking the impale, GTFO.

Another difference on heroic is that a random player will be chosen to get a Corrupting Parasite, which will explode when it drops off of the person (it doesn't hurt the person it's on when it drops off). The general rule with this little ball of squiggly death is to drop it in the Time Zone (while you still have it), near the arm/wing tentacle, but not in the tentacle. On the green platform, you can just leave it be and Dream through the damage. If you drop one off of yourself on any other platform though, it is imperative that it gets damaged to at least 30% health. The rule we run with is that if you drop it and you're not a healer, you help damage it (I kind of forgot to on one of my parasites in the video...whoops), otherwise ranged should be able to simply take care of it.

Bolt is another thing that the melee in our group rarely take care of, but I find often that I must run out of melee range of the Mutated Corruption anyways, since the second impale of any platform and the bolt are often timed pretty close together. More often than not I hang around and take out the bolt, unless we're able to quickly kill off the MC so we can completely negate the second impale from going off all together.

Regenerative Bloods and Spellweave procs = the money dps increasers of this fight. Funny enough, not only do the bloods bloat the dps meters, but the Spellweave procs are a vital component to this fight. Ideally the bloods should be brought over to the wing/claw and/or the parasite so that the spell cleaves can do their work. With Spellweave, all of the things should die incredibly quickly. Unfortunately for us enhancers, quickly is not our thing. Our window of time to get out our AoE is incredibly slim, especially with the 30% nerfs in place. Your best bet is to watch your timers, run over to the spawn point of the bloods, drop Magma Totem, Flame Shock the first blood that shows its ugly bubbly head, then Lava Lash + Fire Nova as soon as there's more than four of them out. Unless your raid's AoE is really slow, chances are you probably won't have time to get an Unleash Elements off before a Fire Nova (aka creating a 'Super Nova' for yourself), but if you can manage to squeeze in another GCD before everything dies, go for it.

Head phase: if you've gotten this far and the raid hasn't had to use any battle rezzes yet, you're doing great! Or even if you have, and you've made it this far, you're still doing pretty damn well. /highfive!

This final "phase" is yet another hurry up and wait type deal. You will go from waiting around for certain adds to spawn, to dpsing a bunch of bloods down as quickly as you can mash your buttons, to quite possibly waiting around again to push Deathwing down another 5% health.

Alright, so here's the deal with Deathwing's noggin.

Elementium Fragments will pop out of the ground, just like on LFR/reg mode. If you can Flame Shock cleave them + Fire Nova them, go for it! So long as you won't end up spell cleaving DW too much that is. You don't want to accidentally push him down past 15%/10%/5% before your group is ready to handle the bloods. These fragments will occasionally cast Shrapnel on a random person. If that person is you, simply hit the big green Dream button that pops up. Have another Shrapnel cast on you, but your Dream button is on cooldown? Shamanistic Rage + Stoneclaw totem, plus give your healers a heads up so they can top you off before you get smashed in the face. If you don't do these things, chances are pretty good that you'll end up being dragon soup.

Shortly after the Fragments spawn, two big dudes called Elementium Terrors will pop up, just like they do in LFR and regular modes. Like everything else, these guys can be spellweaved. However, ideally your raid will want to keep one of these guys up, despite their stacking debuff on the tank. Why? Because when the bloods DO spawn, the tank can move the Terror from the Time Zone (where they should be tanked) over to the bloods. You cleave off of the Terror into the bloods, which is much more ideal than getting a Flame Shock on a blood, only to die stupidly quickly from the AoE, and you missing out on hitting a Lava Lash, thus missing out on Nova AoE. Chances are pretty good though that your Terrors will just die very quickly, like they do in my run, and you'll have to suck it up and somehow deal with less than ideal AoE situations.

/grumbles about enhancement AoE on nerfed content

This is what I generally do when bloods spawn. See the bubbling on the ground, Ghost Wolf on over as quickly as possible, drop a Magma totem. You'd also drop an Earthbind totem here, or on another designated spot if your group is short on traps/slows. I *try* to Stormstrike the first one out, just to get some damage rolling, but most often I find myself scrambling to get a Flame Shock on a middle blood (these suckers go down FAST if your group is on the ball with AoE, as they should be) and spreading as soon as that global cooldown swings around. Nova, Chain Lightning, and Stormstrike as they come up.

My raid tends to do a bit push between 10% and 5%, with spawning the blood packs back to back. This is when I use my wolves and Heroism (Bloodlust for you Horde folk) gets popped. The extra Chain Lightnings from our tier 13 four piece bonus is kinda handy here. Our wolves with hero rolling pop Maelstrom procs like it's their job. Utilize that as much as possible when you're unable to Nova.

This fight is all about rinsing, repeating, and being aware of health percentages on Deathwing's various extremities. It's all about control and being on the ball with your AoE. If you and your raid team can master that, this fight is an easy-ish win in the bag.

Loot
No'Kaled - Hands down, our best in slot weapons for the expansion. Combat rogues will want one of these bad boys for their main hand for some fights, but these are pretty much custom tailored to suit an enhancement shaman. If a rogue tries to take one of these over you, BITE THEM. Same goes for DKs. Tell them to bugger off, because these things are not only super sexy base stat and raw weapon damage wise, but two of their three procs scale off our mastery, and these buggers proc often. So very, very sexy for us.

So there you have it ladies and gents. Apologies about not getting all of the segments of this guide out in a timely fashion, but I certainly hope that it helps at least a few of you out. As always, if you feel that I need to make a correction, or you have a question/comment/concern, please do not hesitate to leave a message as a response to this post, or to contact me directly through either my email address listed on this site or Twitter.

Good luck guys and may the RNG gods be with you!

Fear (Fanfic Doodles)

2012-07-08T10:19:00.000-05:00

A howling wind shot through the dusky twilight, hitting the dark-skinned shaman full in the face with its icy knives. Despite the discomfort, the Draenei did not move a muscle towards the warmth of the indoors. Silently, still as the frozen planes around her, she kept her vigil until the last of the day's light had leaked from the skies. Still she stood with her gaze over the open oceans while one of Azeroth's moons rose over the choppy seas. Nothing else on the horizon seemed quite as huge, white, or indifferent as did the full moon that night.

"The fire is roaring, Ambassador. Come inside before the winds freeze you through."

The youth's voice was what finally pulled the shaman from her visions. "Thank you, Valann." Feeling the pins of ice in her skin for the first time, Saz wrapped the cloak that hung about her shoulders a bit tighter to her flesh. The cloak was made from the skin of a grey northern worg, but even the thick pelt seemed to do little against the chilly fingers of the north winds.

Stiff muscles turned her back to the view of the frigid seas, moved her off of the balcony, and into the room that she was temporarily calling her own. The shaman and her charge had made camp in an old inn, long abandoned. Once upon a time the little inn had been a safe haven for frozen travelers, an alehouse for the locals, a place to warm ones hands. Unfortunately the tiny Borean town in which the little inn rested its foundation had been tainted heavily by the plague years and years before. What scant crops that were able to grow there once could take root no more. Many a citizen had died in that town; most who still called the Borean Tundra home claimed that the area was haunted, unsuitable for the living.

Since the moment that they had set hoof on the continent, Saz had been seeking such a place. Young Valann had much to learn about the spirits as well as the elements; what better place to do so than somewhere where the elements were harsh and the spirits that needed their rest were even more unruly?

Gratefully the shaman seated herself before the little fire. Wind continued its high-pitched wailing, whistling its way through the many cracks found in the walls of the inn, attempting to caress the skins of the two travelers with its pin-spiked fingers. The winds attempts were all in vain though, for the pair both had heavy armor, heavier cloaks, thinning but still solid walls, and their cheery little fire to keep them safe.

"I like this place not." grumbled Valann. "The air always screams, always bites. There is no peace here."

Saz nodded gently. "You are right child, there is no peace here. That is why we have come, though it is not the air we seek to calm this time."

She knew that she had peaked Valann's interest, but she could also sense his fear. Surprisingly the youth kept his tongue and waited patiently for her to continue on. It has taken him weeks, but he learns.

"We haven't come to temper the air elementals, nor the waters that mate with the air to make the ice which threatens to stab us through with its fragile knives. We are here to communicate with the spirits."

"The..spirits?" The shaman had taken her charge by surprise. "We cannot speak to the spirits, it is but an old mother's tale."

"All tales have a truth to them. In part, you are correct. Rarely can we commune with the spirits who have found their way to the other realm. To cross into their world is to possibly give oneself to the spirit world, to essentially sink oneself into an early grave. There are very few shaman who are strong enough to cross into other planes not meant for us. However," Saz readjusted her cloak about her, fussing with a chunk of fur that seemed to be coming loose from the pelt. "if a spirit has yet to move on, if it has found itself stuck in our realm, communication is not nearly so difficult."

The flickering fire and the still moonlight was all that brought light into the little room; while she couldn't see his face clearly, Saz thought that Valann had suddenly paled by a few shades.

"Does the idea of speaking with the dead frighten you, Valann?"

"Of...of course."

"Take no fear from something that means you no harm. The rage of the spirits are never actually meant to be directed at you, nor are they caused by you, and you'd do well to remember that at all times. Their sorrow, their pain, it all happened so long ago. They are trapped, searching for the way our of their endless prison of misery."

"Can they not possess?"

"Some of the more willful spirits can at times, yes."

"Then how can I not fear them? How could I ever fight something that controls me?"

Valann's voice squeaked up a few pitches as he said this. Saz turned her face to the young Draenei beside her, and looked him in the eyes. "For one, we never seek to control the spirits, or ever the elements for that matter. For two, if you meet those who mean to do you harm with understanding, compassion, and endless patience, chances are pretty good that they will not do you so much harm to you after all."

"So I don't fight them? I just accept them?"

"Do not fight them, work to calm them. Understand their sorrow, try to help them find peace."

"So I just allow them to possess me if they will, and hope that they leave once they're happy again..."

"Allow them to tell you the story of their sorrow, let them rage until their rage is spent. They may possess you if the storm in their hearts compels them to, but even the strongest of storms must weaken eventually."

"Why not avoid them instead? Why look for them and their problems, prod at them? Leave the wretches be I say, leave them to their miseries. I want no part in their sorrows. It's their choice to stay here in this realm, we needn't interfere."

"Because dear child, a shaman's job is a complex one. We do not set out each day to ignite the bloodlust of man, to reek war and havoc on the world, to slaughter all those we deem to be in the wrong. We are the warriors who are at one with the elements, at one with the spirits; we are the calm that soothes the storm. We are meant to mend what we have destroyed; we are to mend what others have destroyed before us. We are healer, we are warrior. We are adviser and protector. Our spirits are ever entwined with the will of the elements, and with the elements the spirits of our ancestors. A shaman's life calling is not for the cowards. If you cower from those who are in need your aid, even if they scream against you, perhaps it is time we returned to the Eastern Kingdoms where it is warm and safe, and find you a new life calling."

Without looking at the young male, Saz could tell that Valann was sulking. Over the past several weeks she had come to know the Draenei's face all to well. His over sized lips would be pushed out in a pathetic pout, his eyebrows would be raised so that the skin above them would wrinkle against his skull plate, and his nose would begin to run slightly as he held back his tears. He's but a large boy, but there's no time to coddle him. It's high time to see if he's worth his tendrils or if I should return him to his father.

Moments passed. When the shaman spoke next her voice was as cold as the night air. "What will it be, Valann? Run back to your father and hide in the safety of Stormwind forever, or face your ghostly fears?"

Shame skittered across his face as he made up his mind. In a whisper he replied, "I shall stay."

"There will be no running."

"There will be no running..."

"Good. Tonight we begin our fast. Tomorrow night we will speak with the spirits."

Valann responded with nothing, simply nodding his alabaster head in acknowledgement.

"To bed with you then, we shall need more tinder come morning."

"Yes, Ambassador."

As they lay down in their makeshift beds, cloaks wrapped about them, she could hear the youth quietly chanting to himself:

Calm like the rains
Persistent as the winds
Patient as the earth
Vibrant as fire

Spirits, do me no harm.

How To Enhance: Heroic Ultraxion & Heroic Warmaster Blackhorn

2012-06-26T17:30:00.001-05:00

You've done it! You and your raid team have hacked and slashed your way through the first four bosses in Dragon Soul on heroic. Well, chances are pretty good you've also been knocking out Ultraxion on heroic long before you all managed to down heroic Zon'ozz and perhaps even heroic Yor'sahj, but there's still a nifty trick or two you can learn as an enhancement shaman for that rather dull fight.

The video above was one of the first I took in Dragon Soul. I can't recall if it was taken when the instance was still at full strength, or if the 5% nerf had already taken hold. Regardless, one thing was very clear: it was incredibly difficult for an enhancement shaman to soak an Hour of Twilight. By that I mean it was damn near impossible unless you were 100% topped off, had Shamanistic Rage up, Stoneclaw Totem up, had an external healing cooldown rolling on you, possibly a warrior's Rallying Cry out, and if the stars aligned just so, you might have lived. It was just easier to be a sacrificial lamb and to ankh back up if your 10 man raid team was really that hard pressed for soakers.

These days Ultraxion is much easier to deal with on heroic mode. Guess what? Having an enhancement shaman soaking an Hour of Twilight is no longer such a song and dance, and is very easy to deal with. As of right now, I have about 150k health unbuffed as enhance. Shamanistic Rage + glyphed Stoneclaw totem + a warrior's Rallying Cry = a successful soak. It's not often that I have to soak an Hour of Twilight, but if I must I generally take the third Hour of Twilight (these days I believe we only get about four Hour of Twilights total, maaaybe five tops if we lose someone to a button failure). It can still be a bit dicey, especially since my team single heals the encounter with a druid, but it is rather doable.

Spec Changes:
None necessary

Glyph Changes:
Keep your standard Prime Glyphs. (Lava Lash, Stormstrike, Windfury)
Keep your semi-standard Major Glyphs (Lightning Shield, Ghost Wolf, Stoneclaw)

Totem Changes:
Run your usual set up, just twist in a Stoneclaw if you need to soak an Hour of Twilight or if damage gets a bit heavy at the end (this should only happen if dps is low for some reason).

The Encounter:
Perform your optimal rotation. Know your latency/reaction times when dealing with Hour of Twilight. For me, I have a latency of 22ms. This allows me to exit the Twilight Realm at about .9 seconds left on the castbar (careful, that bugger is quick on heroic!) and still be able to comfortably get into the safe realm, which will allow me to either get a few more white swings in, or even possibly an extra special ability. However if your latency is higher, you'll obviously not want to cut it nearly as close as I do. This fight is all about maximizing your dps; misjudging your game's reaction time can turn you into a dead dps. A dead dps does no dps, so know when you can safely click that button!

Loot:
Bracers of Looming Darkness - Our BiS bracers. The drop rate on these buggers is pretty low, so snatch them up when you can!

Chest of the Corrupted Protector - Turn this token in for our BiS chest piece, Spiritwalker's Cuirass.

Morningstar of Heroic Will - There has been a ton of theory crafting debate over this mace vs No'Kaled. Is a heroic MoHW better than a heroic N'K? Which weapons should I use in which hand? Personally, I preferred my normal No'Kaleds and their procs (which are boosted by our mastery bonuses) over trying to reforge and balance out the craptastic secondary stats of the Morningstars. However, this mace does have it's place: heroic Spine of Deathwing. During this encounter you want to maximize your burst potential, which means to minimize the RNG of procs. A pair of these maces could potentially help you out with that. Otherwise, this mace is complete garbage for us. Potentially better than the LFR No'Kaleds due to pure weapon damage and agility increases, but ultimately you'll want to run a sim to see which weapon(s) is better for your personal set up.

Seal of Primordial Shadow - A ring that has a chance to drop off of Morchok, Zon'ozz, Yor'sahj, Hagara, Ultraxion, and Warmaster Blackhorn. Best in slot item.

Vial of Shadows - A trinket that has a chance to drop off of Morchok, Zon'ozz, Yor'sahj, Hagara, Ultraxion, and Warmaster Blackhorn. Best in slot item, though heroic Matrix Restabilizer is a contender for this trinket slot. Better for your feral dps/rogues/hunters, but still a sexy trinket for us. If you have a Matrix, consider passing the Vial off to those other classes until they all have it.

Taking on Warmaster Blackhorn as a DPS is...special. As a ranged you DoT all the things, as a melee you spend more time chasing mobs than you do damaging them it seems. Hang on to your breeches kids, it's gonna be a bumpy air ride.

Spec Changes:
None necessary

Glyph Changes:
Keep your standard Prime Glyphs. (Lava Lash, Stormstrike, Windfury)
Keep your semi-standard Major Glyphs (Lightning Shield, Ghost Wolf, Stoneclaw)

Totem Changes:
Run your usual set up. Pop a Stoneclaw when soaking Twilight Onslaught to help your healers out a little, and also when damage gets heavy towards the end of Blackhorn's life.

The Encounter:
Dealing with the melee adds - Ideally, you want to be on the melee adds. Dancing out of the way of their charges can be an absolute pain, but if your tanks keep them together, you can "cleave" them. Flame Shock, Lava Lash, Nova, and Chain Lightning these two buggers down asap. Be mindful that these guys do have a cleave, and that their cleave at the end of their charge is particularly brutal. Never be anywhere near their red charge line if you can help it, because it hurts pretty damn bad on heroic, and will most likely kill you.

Drakes - If you have to be on drake duty, you can get behind them and be able to hit them with specials without hopping around like an idiot. However, this sweet spot is right on the edge of the ship, right behind their tails. Be careful when positioning yourself! I may or may not have accidentally fallen off of the side of the ship with my feral druid while trying to pull off this maneuver. This isn't ICC's ship folks. If you fall, you be dead.

Sappers - I tend to pop my wolves on the first set of melee adds so that they're up when we need a sapper stun during the third Onslaught (often the damn thing is running through a crapload of fire, and depending on the raid composition for the evening we might not have our priest soaking that Onslaught...pop wolves, target the active sapper after he's done vanishing, hit Bash on your pet bar and let your puppies stun/chew on him while you and your raid soak Onslaught or dance through fire). Sappers will go down fast, provided your DPS are switching to these buggers fast enough. Generally I Unleash Elements on them until they get in range, then choose my shock accordingly: if there's no slow on him, Frost Shock; if he's slowed and no where near the door and dying kinda slow, Flame Shock; if he's close to the door, Earth Shock. *Generally* by the time I've UE'd, Stormstriked, and Shocked them, they're dead. Throw instant Lightning Bolts into a sapper's face if you've got them, naturally. If a sapper gets into the door of the ship and doesn't die nearly instantly as he reaches that point, he will detonate. If you've chased after him and he detonates in your face, you will die. At least you would have died trying to do your job.

Dealing with Twilight Barrages - On heroic your team wants to be soaking as many Twilight Barrages as possible. Yes, even with the nerf it is extremely helpful to soak as many of these things as possible. Ideally you always want to soak these with one other person, especially if you already have a stack of the Twilight Barrage debuff. You can however soak ONE of these barrages solo - use Shamanistic Rage to live through it though. No rage, pretty good chances of no living. Keep your SR ready for that oshi...moment when you realize that your soaking partner or other melee buddies won't reach you in time.

Deck Fire - This mechanic is kind of a pain in the butt to deal with on heroic. More often than not Deck Fire will bug out, both taking its dear old time being extinguished by our flying gnome friends, or it will continue to spread during phase two, making the encounter nearly impossible to deal with. During phase one, avoid it to the best of your abilities. If you must run after a sapper, or run to an Onslaught, Ghost Wolf your way through it as quickly as possible. Don't do this of course if your health is low, watch out for any possible charge lines (which is difficult, as the fire and the charge lines are nearly the same color), and be wary of any Twilight Barrage marks down. A combination of any of these things and the fire will more than likely kill you, even with the nerf, if you are not careful. If the fire bugs out and lasts through phase two, just do your best to dodge around under Goriona's tail and make sure not to get hit by Blackhorn's shockwave somehow. It gets tricky, but can be done.

Warmaster Blackhorn - When he first becomes active, feel free to whack away on him for a little while. Do not however get his health to drop too low before killing Goriona. If you do, he'll start sucking the health from her. If this happens, "the health drain inflicts damage equal to 20% of Goriona's remaining health, and heals Blackhorn accordingly" according to Wowhead. Translation: damage Blackhorn too much, and bad bad things will happen.

Goriona - As soon as she comes down, give the tanks a moment to pick her up and position her next to Blackhorn. Once this is done, take down that dragon! She doesn't have a tail swipe, but I do believe she has a typical dragon melee cleave. It's her breath however that you absolutely want to avoid. If she casts Consuming Shroud on someone near you, Shamanistic Rage to help lower the damage to yourself. If your team is AoE healing the group and everyone's receiving heals through this mechanic, it shouldn't hurt all that much, it's just merely annoying.

Blackhorn - Once Goriona lifts off (and hopefully she does this properly and doesn't stay hovering on the ships deck, aka bugged out) Blackhorn is exactly the same for us as on normal mode. He has more health, his roars hit harder, and his shockwaves hurt a hell of a lot more. Actually, pre-nerfs the shockwaves would one shot you. This isn't so much the case anymore if you're topped off, though you should be avoiding shockwaves at all costs regardless. This shouldn't be all that difficult to achieve as a melee, as the coned area of which we need to step out of is rather small. Shamanistic Rage, healing/damage reduction racials, and Stoneclaw Totem before a roar is very helpful here for your healers, especially as the boss's health dwindles.

TL;DR
1) Cleave the things
2) Soak the things
3) Stop the things from going into the ship and going boom
4) Don't eat a charge
5) Stay out of fire; beware of bugs
6) Stay out of purple
7) DPS Blackhorn down, but not too much or you will die
8) Nuke Goriona; beware of bugs
9) Nuke Blackhorn
10) Collect purples

Loot
Crown of the Corrupted Protector - The token for our BiS helm item. Turn this in for the Spiritwalker's Helmet.

Belt of the Beloved Companion - Despite its crappy secondary stats, this is our BiS belt.

Starcatcher Compass - This is NOT an item for enhancement shaman. You are a bad, bad shaman if you use this item, especially if you're pairing it with Matrix Restabilizer (if this trinket procs, and Matrix decides to proc while the buff from SC is on, guess what? You get a haste proc instead of your beloved mastery proc.). Unless your trinkets are for some reason absolute garbage, don't bother with this trinket. Yes, the agility on this is nice, but the proc is useless. LFR/regular Vial of Shadows, regular Matrix, and any of the versions of Wrath of Unchaining are all vastly superior to this trinket. Leave this one to the ferals, rogues, and/or hunters if they want this trinket for some reason.

Seal of Primordial Shadow - A ring that has a chance to drop off of Morchok, Zon'ozz, Yor'sahj, Hagara, Ultraxion, and Warmaster Blackhorn. Best in slot item.

Vial of Shadows - A trinket that has a chance to drop off of Morchok, Zon'ozz, Yor'sahj, Hagara, Ultraxion, and Warmaster Blackhorn. Best in slot item, though heroic Matrix Restabilizer is a contender for this trinket slot. Better for your feral dps/rogues/hunters, but still a sexy trinket for us. If you have a Matrix, consider passing the Vial off to those other classes until they all have it.

There you have it folks. As always, if you feel that a correction must be made or if you have a question about any of these encounters, please feel free to comment! Good luck, have fun, and may you loot rolls be strong.

Brain Soup

2012-06-04T09:25:00.001-05:00

It has been a long time since I've done a personal post. Hell, as of lately I've had a hard time getting any sort of post out at all. This is mostly due to disinterest, burnout, apathy, a writing dry spell...call it whatever you want, but sadly I just haven't been able to arse myself to do something that I at one point really, really enjoyed. I mean, I still do enjoy it to an extent. There is nothing that I like more than sitting down and jamming out some hair brained idea, turning that idea into an epic wall of text that is capable of making the eyes of even the most eager of readers bleed. It seems though I have lost the ability to start up my typing engine. Kind of.

Part of me takes great pleasure of babbling, make no mistake about that. Given the right prompts I can go on for hours, but sadly as of the past many months I've had no real desire too. For a long while I had valid excuses for not writing: busy pushing progression with the guild, busy with TLR, busy with...I don't know, laundry maybe. Which in a way, busy is how I prefer things despite my incredibly lazy nature, but all that busyness kind of really pulled me away from my already floundering creative groove.

This isn't to say that I will ever be closing up shop on either of my blogs. I still hope to finish my FBN story, despite how dissatisfied I am with the quality of it thus far (well, it was meant to be an exercise in story telling after all, so I'm not sure what sort of quality I was expecting from someone as inexperienced as myself), I do plan on at least attempting to finish off this How To Enhance series on heroic Dragon Soul, and I will re-tackle the leveling guide, though the leveling guide may wait until MoP hits. I mean, there's no sense in writing a leveling guide when it's all going to be bunk in a few months anyways, right? Yeah it's a lazy cop out, but it's the truth of it.

So far this babble post hasn't even remotely been about the topic(s) that I wanted to yammer on about. I think I originally wanted to talk about some philosophical bullshit about the cycles in life and friends with ups and downs and fall-outs, and somehow it had this nice clever hook that connected the whole idea back into WoW...it was pretty brilliant, let me assure you. Maybe at some other point in time I'll be re-arsed to start up another post that will hopefully express this enlightened idea or whatever. As of right now...eh, I'm happy just to be typing black words onto a white screen.

Maybe you've vibed me already, dear reader. I'm in a funk. Yup, another one of Saz's Famous Funks. Hmm, sounds like a ridiculous sort of ice cream...anyways. I'm in a funk for a variety of reasons; some pertain to life, others to family, some to people (which also tied into the topic that I originally set out to write, but instead am finding myself to be typing out this drivel), and at least a bit to our beloved Azeroth itself.

You know that moment when you first realize that you have a sneeze that's kind of stuck? Not quite the point where it feels like your sinuses are about to blow through the front of your face, but that moment when the sneeze is just an obnoxious little itch you get, that tickle that resides deep inside your nasal cavity. That's kind of an awkward metaphor for where I am with essentially everything right now. I'd really like to sneeze and just move on with it already, but instead I'm stuck here making funny faces.

WoW has always been my great distraction from life things, and right now we're hitting some rather nasty summer doldrums. Mists of Pandaria isn't estimated to be released until probably about August (the absolute earliest in all likeliness) and already it's become a struggle for even the 10 man raid teams to keep on raiding due to the attendance boss. Part of that is because of burn out from the game in general, some of it is because people are bored to shit of Dragon Soul already (LFR was nice and all, but I think it's created a burnout for the more active raiding community that has surpassed even the burnout of the ICC era) with no official end in sight for that instance as end game, and of course it's that time of gear when other new shiny things start rearing their heads *coughDiablocough*. So yeah, my happy place is sadly becoming a bit of a headache and heartbreak combination. Three raiders didn't bother to show up tonight with no word on what's going on? POW right in the kisser. Guess yo ass won't be raiding tonight!

*grumbles*

No, I still won't be playing D3 until all the damn hype has died down. I'll see you all in there in six months to three years. Sorry, that's just how I'm gonna roll.

Despite my disgruntled frustrations with pretty much everything as of late, not everything is all that bad. No, Chicken Little; the sky is not falling and the end is not near. In game I've been taking a little enjoyment out of leveling my original shaman (as in THE first shaman I ever rolled) as elemental, plus I've been pulled into the company of this late night guild, along with some of my more favorite fellas from my current guild. We've been slowly working on those pain-in-the-ass heroic end bosses of tier 11, and despite all of the wipes it hasn't been a totally unpleasant experience. Since TLR is kind of on the down swing (only temporarily I hope) and it seems almost impossible to get everyone from my current raid group to commit to Dragon Soul and Firelards, let alone tier 11, so the arrangement works out fairly nicely. Chill group, competent and dependable players, good people...can't really complain there. The later hours are kind of funky for even me to get used to, but hey, if I'm awake anyways may as well do some raiding that isn't the brain blender of LFR.

Since I have no idea on how to properly end this post, let me leave you with the words of wisdom from the trolls: Stay away from da voodoo!