Ferocious Inspiration

WeakAuras For Resto Shaman

noreply@blogger.com (Titleist) — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 06:45:00 +0000

Power Auras used to be one of my most favorite addons for the World of Warcraft. Unfortunately, development has seemingly dropped off for this golden oldie. A good alternative that is easier to use and just as flexible is WeakAuras. Below is a video of some WA in action on my resto shaman. Below the cut are import codes for those auras.

WeakAuras can be found here at curse.

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Citicorp says thank you....GANGNAM STYLE

noreply@blogger.com (Titleist) — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 06:39:00 +0000

[DK] The Official 5.0 Talent Preview for DW-DPS

noreply@blogger.com (Titleist) — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 04:58:00 +0000

So here we are, on the precipice of another exciting WoW patch. The guys and I here at FI have been thoroughly slacking in our blogging duties but have been hitting the play time rather hard. We've been working on Heroic Dragon Soul with our guild so that plus real life pretty much consumes the free time I have. Luckily in order to prepare myself for the new patch (slotted for August 28th) I usually like to review my talents and I might as well blog about it. Every once in a while I'll miss something a reader will catch and I'm glad that I did.

A good place to start is here, which was my Blizzcon review of the talent system. Since then much of the talent tree has been changed some of the information is good - other parts are outdated. Keep in mind that many of the talents are granted to us at level 55 because well DUH that is where we start. The first three points will be available to us from the beginning. Here we go:

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Welcome to FI's MOP Beta Coverage

noreply@blogger.com (Titleist) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 21:51:00 +0000

Hey everyone, it's been a hot minute since we last posted any information on the blog. It's been a crazy mix of RL syndrome, new exciting games being released, and lets face it boredom with the current content. Hopefully MOP can change all that, if even for a minute.

That said we're back to provide some information and insight into the current paradigm of Pandaria. With so much to cover (which we can't possibly cover it all) we welcome your suggestions as to what YOU want to see. Here are some broad categories available;

Monk info
Talent system
Raids / instances
Questing and zones
Professions
Balance issues
Specific class info

Like I said, these are just a few things we could post on but if anyone has suggestions please post.

LFR tips for frost death knights

noreply@blogger.com (Titleist) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:06:00 +0000

So you like being a red murder machine? Me too. There is something about topping the charts that just makes me feel complete. Don't get me wrong, being a meter whore can be annoying to others at times. I feel that if I top the charts I've done my job - and done it well. Nothing is more upsetting to me than a DPS who argues that it's not about the numbers - of course it is! Your primary job as a DPS is to deal damage. Now standing in shit, carrying out other tasks, and having fun are also goals but at a binary level we deal damage. Today I wanted to pass on a few tips to help you do more of that.

Specifically I wanted to share some tips for death knights that may be dipping their toes into either raiding or the tier via the LFR tool. Being a DK means we have a large variety of abilities that we can use to stay alive and maximize our output. I feel that toolbox is not only the allure of playing a DPS death knight, but also the pinnacle of a great player.

Hit the jump for the goods.

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Are epic gems my new headache?

noreply@blogger.com (Titleist) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:03:00 +0000

Reading around the wow blogosphere today, I stumbled upon an interesting post over at MMO Melting Pot regarding epic gems. Now I say interesting because just this morning I was in the shower (seething with my usual Tuesday morning irritation) thinking about the implementation of epic gems. It was a totally random thought - I even stopped mid-shampoo and acknowledged that. Maybe I'll start showering a few times a day.

Anyway, the implementation of epic gems is confusing at best with it's current design. With all the new content spilling out onto our computers with 4.3, the implementation of epic gems felt rushed. I wanted to make a short post about the currently model, where it falls short, and how to possibly improve it.

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Pre-raid and BiS gear for your death knight in 4.3

noreply@blogger.com (Titleist) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 19:55:00 +0000

Well, well, well. Here we are a few weeks into the patch 4.3 and the Dragon Soul. I will say that so far I've really enjoyed this content patch thus far. I'm still on the fence about the quality of the raids but I will say there is no lacking in the quantity department.

In fact, the Darkmoon Faire came and went - I was so busy with my death knight, priest and hunter in the 5 mans, LFR and Dragon Soul that I feel like I missed out my chance to really delve into the faire. From what I could see it looks potentially really really fun - maybe next time it comes to down I'll write up what I think about it.

Today it's all about gear.

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Priest Talent Breakdown for 5.0

noreply@blogger.com (Guest Poster) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 19:54:00 +0000

Would You Like Your Face Scrambled Or Sunny Side Up?

Mists of Pandaria is going to be bringing massive changes to all classes and specs, and in the case of Shadow Priests, this will be both fixes that should have never been required, on top of the fact that we're moving towards a third resource required, Shadow Orbs (possibly Evangelism for Disc/Holy). From what we've been told, this will no longer be RNG proc based, and instead will be given to us in a constant proc based spell, probably through Mind Flay still.

Of course Holy and Disc Priests will be getting some love as well, but unfortunately they'll come more cookie cutter spec than a Shadow Priest will for certain tiers, and vice versa. I'd love to see which spells have been given as baseline and which are spec specific, but unfortunately Blue Wizards are keeping the scrolls tightly sealed in the vault of madness, along with various ideas they crafted for the World (of Warcraft) to experience but later decided to use them as paper weights.

Now a lot of people will argue that cookie cutter specs will still be around, which is always going to be true when you can only pick a limited number of anything from a large pool of things, but in the case of Priest 5.0 talents, they're going to be encounter specific cookie cutter specs, meaning you'll actually have to know your talents and constantly change when dealing with progression, be it leveling or end-game. Hopefully this means people will learn to read their talents instead of picking random ones or following the current flavor of the month spec. So what changes are we going to be seeing? Keep reading and find out!

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4.3 Death Knight Changes & Info

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Thomas) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 21:43:00 +0000

Patch 4.3 is upon us. Finally. At last. Saying that is funny to me because I never thought I would get sick of Firelands and it also seems like it was just starting. I will admit I was getting a bit bored there near the end of 4.2 but that might also have something to do with external influences. Between Skyrim and beta testing SWTOR forcing myself to log on to WoW for tired content was just not happening. Patch time was needed.

There doesn't seem to be too much for DPS Death Knights in this patch, then again I feel like we were at a fairly balanced place. Some people argue that of the melee classes we struggled but in the hands of a skilled player those vacuum generated numbers can be overcome. I will say regardless of being manhandled by Ghostcrawler very little for 4.3, Death Knights seem to be poised to get the nerf bat maybe sooner than later. It's interesting how it all panned out. This seems to be the DK tank patch of love.

Jump for some more.

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Malice Firelands Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Titleist) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 04:58:00 +0000

This is a recap video of our time in Firelands. This was T12 raiding along side of a great group of raiders. From various beliefs and walks of life we get together to commit digital murder of evil pixels. Enjoy and see you for T13

What Can Brown Do For You?

noreply@blogger.com (Goreblades) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 01:43:00 +0000

The State of the Warrior in 5.0

Big things are coming. There really is no other way to put it. Mists of Pandaria has announced some big things ahead for Warriors - while this is truly big this for all the classes, lets focus of the Warriors for now.

The biggest change that Blizzard has announced for our beloved class is a complete retooling of the talent trees. Gone will be the days of cookie-cutting specs (for the most part) and more emphasis will be placed on the feel of abilities, and how well certain “flavor” abilities will enhance the Warriors abilities to dominate on the battlefield.

I guess the largest change is that we now get 6 talent points—one at 15, at 30, 45, 60, 75 and the final at 90. That is it. Not every other level like it is now, not every level like we had before. Six whole talents points. Spend them wisely. The other change to this is that there is one unified talent tree for all 3 specs—there will be an Arms tree, a Fury tree and a Protection tree with spec-specific abilities, but as far as the customizable talent trees there will only be 1 tree that you actually spend points in.

The advantage to having only six talent points is that a lot of the filler talents that bolster an ability or two are gone. It is unclear if these functions are going to be rolled into the actual abilities in the different trees, or if they simply go away. It is still too early to tell. One thing we can report on is the different abilities from the talent tree.

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The 5.0 Talent System: A Critique

noreply@blogger.com (Titleist) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 04:49:00 +0000

A few days I ago I sat down and really looked at the new talent tree for 5.0 / MoP for Death Knights and what we have to look forward to in the next 12 months or so. I will admit that some of the abilities are really interesting and I look forward to experiencing them. Being a DK that mainly plays PvE content I felt a bit short changed by the Cataclysm abilities, which doesn’t appear to be happening again.

Even though I’m excited for the new talents, there was something that was bothering me about the new lay out and delivery system. As I sat there watching the Blizzcon coverage that explained how the new talent system worked, as well as the total class coverage I began to analyze talents from both a players perspective and Blizzards. I understand this is as much a business to Blizzard as it is a game to the players, however when there is something I disagree with I have the unique advantage of blogging about it.

I have to say I’m really not in favor of the new talent tree idea laid out at Blizzcon. I’ve read some posts on this topic already and it seems many people are excited for the talents but disappointed with the talent tree – I totally agree. More after the jump.

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Raiding Versus Rated: A tale of PvE vs. PvP

noreply@blogger.com (Guest Poster) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 04:21:00 +0000

Holyzyro is a Protection Paladin for <Malice> of Haomarush. He has joined our raiding crew for Firelands and is shield bashing his way as a regular tank for our raid team. He plays a shadow priest as well. This is his first post as a guest poster for Ferocious Inspiration. We look forward to seeing what he brings to the community.

Many players will argue the difficulty of PvE against PvP differs greatly. They mostly argue PvE is easier than PvP however a handful of people would disagree. So to help those who want to know, I'm going to be breaking down the differences between the different levels of PvE against the various brick walls you smash into and sometimes through in PvP.

But first, what is PvE and PvP? Both are synonymous with classic pen and paper RPGs and almost anything dealing with the video game industry. PvE (Players vs. Environment) is usually taking into account an actual player versus any non-player, i.e. a mob. Many people don't realize that PvE was revolutionized way back during the historical "Spartacus" era with Roman royalty and elite laying on couches watching various criminals, slaves, and even suicidal warriors do battle against various beasts, lions being the most popular. Of course we cannot forget what created it all, PvP (Player vs. Player), in 310 BCE when some blood thirsty Romans known as the Campanians conquered the Samnites and decided to do battle with those who survived. This later died off for about 75 years or so until it was brought back.

So why do we continue this insane tradition of battling against various machine and flesh A.I. in a virtual world? Keep reading and find out!

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Blizzcon Reflections 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Thomas) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:12:00 +0000

The Venue

Blizzcon is a busy and exciting time for anyone who plays World of Warcraft. To us here at FI that is no exception. The three of us are professionals IRL and two of us have kiddies so our time is always limited. However we still make sure to allocate some time to our favorite hobby which this weekend included Blizzcon coverage.

To be honest being a part time blogger is hard during Blizzcon. There is so much new info and data coming out that it is hard to blog about the new exciting things and be complete while still being able to enjoy the news yourself! Just like our new Pandaren friends, the key is with balance and inner peace!

Click the jumparoo for a few brain picking questions I floated around the FI virtual office.

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5.0 Preview | Death Knight Talent Tree

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Thomas) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 03:00:00 +0000

As many of you are aware, this year at Blizzcon they once again turned our world upside down in terms of talenting. After the last change (the consolidation of the talent trees) I could not believe they would attempt to modify that system again, let alone this drastically. The sticker shock I first experienced was slightly soothed by some of the new talents (and finding out that some abilities will be base abilities) but at the end of the day it is what it is....a risky move.

I want to go over the options for DK's today and explain some of the new abilities as I understand them. Let it be said that nothing is set in stone and until launch everything is subject to modification. This section could be revised (and it probably will) or it could be removed all together (a lovely pipe dream). Let it also be said I'll be talking about the abilities as I understand them from the Dev panel and the tooltip information. When I get into the beta (did you hear that Blizzard, WHEN oh WHEN) I will be trying them all out, as well as different talenting options, to see if my analysis holds water.

With that hold on to your asses and click the jump!

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4.2 State of the Game

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Thomas) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:05:00 +0000

The staff here at Ferocious Inspiration are always talking about current events surround our favorite game. It feels like Firelands just dropped but it's already in the tail end of the tier and talk of 4.3 being on the horizon. With that comes a slew of changes, new content and features being added in. Today we sit down with the crew and as them some questions about the state of the game.

Follow the jump for more!

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Hotfix Rodeo: INC Massive Threat Changes

noreply@blogger.com (Titleist) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 03:13:00 +0000

It's been a hot minute since we have had worthwhile hotfix news. I guess in reality no news is good news, amirite? Anyway today Blizzard dropped a potential bombshell on the community with some startling news: threat may just be headed the way of the dodo. What is that you say? One of the most quintessential MMO gaming mechanics of all times, even bleeding into single player RTM games (ahem FF13) is now potentially on the chopping block? As with most of Blizzard and their cryptic jibbah jabbah, they mean to say well yes and no. For a more indepth look into one hell of a confusing change, as well as POV opinions from our tanking and DPS staff, take the jump....but not too hard you might pull aggro.

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Raiding from Viceland

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Thomas) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 01:07:00 +0000

My FI cohorts and I all belong to the same raiding guild. That is where we all met many raiding tiers ago. Back then I was a scared and nervous little hunter named Blachand who wore mainly S2 PVP gear, facepulled on a regular, and couldn't trap worth shit. That was my lot in life for most of T4-6, the glorious days of The Burning Crusade. In some ways I miss those times, as most seasoned raiders look back on previous tiers with muddled admiration. That, my friends, is a post for another day. No, today we are going to talk about something entirely different.

Even now as I sit here typing this, my hands have the slight quiver of someone who could use a beer or 6, hell maybe even a Vicodin for luck. That's right folks, I like to raid while getting screwed up. We've touched on this before, my co-author Gordrin even addresses this very topic in his series 'Raid Building 101" from time to time. I'm not saying he is speaking directly to me, but I sure have given him a few things to think about in the few years we've been intimately raiding together.

With that fill a pint, grab a pinch, or pop a quaalude.......this begins a look into the twisted mind of a raider who 99.99% of the time would not legally be able to operate a motor vehicle but will crush the damage charts like it's a beer can. Pull up a bar stool or computer chair and hold the fuck on.

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Alysrazor Tanking Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Gordrin) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 20:42:00 +0000

One interesting thing that has come out of my experiences while tanking Firelands is the need for different gear sets. It seems there are a couple of bosses where certain stats are weighed higher than others. I decided to put together a quick post about how I built each of my sets and what they consist of.

So far it seems three sets seems to do the best for me. The main fights I have a different gear sets for are Alysrazor and Baelroc, the rest of the time I use my normal mastery set.

Gear sets and stat weighing for Alysrazor after the jump.

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How To: Alysrazor's Fire Tornado

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Thomas) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 16:58:00 +0000

One of the simplest, yet potentially deadly mechanics in Alysrazor are her fire tornadoes. Technically they should be called FIRENADOES and will be referenced as such hence forth. This should help walk you through one of the many techniques you can employ to avoid dying like the nub you are.

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Firelands Tips for DKs

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Thomas) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 20:07:00 +0000

Here we are, a good few solid weeks into Firelands raiding. So far I personally have been having a good time, and I think I can say the same for my cohorts. FL doesn't seem to be overly tuned, it seems with proper practice any boss is manageable. I still have nightmares about Razorscale in Ulduar and just how ridiculous it was. Thank Alune it's not that way on the Molten Front.

Here are some tips and tricks I can offer my dps DK brethren whilst stepping foot into the mighty Firelands. I'll cover the first 5 bosses for now (the first "wing" of FL) and I'll cover the last two bosses in more detail once I get more comfortable with them. As a general rule of thumb the idea is survival. You can't dps when you are dead, right?

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Malice VS Shannox 10-man Prot Paladin POV

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Thomas) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 01:19:00 +0000

Our first Firelands kill - and fairly clean too.

Subtractoff: An Addon Guide

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Thomas) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 03:50:00 +0000

no, not THOSE addons

Today I wanted to kick off something new and potentially helpful to those who read our blog. It seems that no matter what I post, be it picture or video, someone is always asking me what kind of addons I'm using. I remember a time when I didn't know what an addon was. Just a lowbie level 40 hunter wandering around only doing green quests, I had yet to realize the hidden potential (and issues) of these strange zip files.

I'm going to make a basic assumption that most readers know what an addon is. The idea of this mini-series is to introduce people to addons they may not know about or give insight into how to configure an addon to increase it's potential. Any and all suggestions are welcome, as is expanding on what I'll already post about an addon. I try and mess with addons and learn them in / out but there is always the chance I missed something.

Load up your curse client and grab a beer; Welcome to Subtractoff.

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Patch 4.2 Death Knight DPS Changes

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Thomas) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:35:00 +0000


crybaby.....

Have you ever heard an undead creature weep? Let me tell you, it's a pathetic sound. The only thing worse is listening to the weeping of a creature that was once living, then became undead, then was killed, then was brought back again. That's right folks, it's time for 4.2: DK Nerf-a-thon 2011!

This patch has brought with it a new style in nerfing, the minimalist approach. Blizzard is attempted to piss off player bases by nerfing their classes but not in a traditional sense. Instead of huge long mathy nerfs detailing just how much you are going to suck, the new methodology is to have a few simple nerfs that are as hated as they are not understood.

Lets take a look..........

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Patch 4.2 Feral Bear Changes

noreply@blogger.com (Dustin Thomas) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 22:29:00 +0000

FERAL CHARGE!

Patch 4.1, the RAGE of the Firelands is here upon us. All clues point to the patch dropping this Tuesday. I don't know about you, but I love patch day. Broken addons, instances not being located, and nerf QQing are in full force. Another reason I like patch day is that the world (of warcraft) hums. There is just this buzz of excitement in the air and even some old faces come out of the woodwork to say hello (then immediately QQ about broken addons).

Today I want to cover some of the changes for our furry fuzzy tanky types, so follow the jumping jump.

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