Blog Archive by month: November 2008
Frostfire Bolt tested
by Tachyon on Thu. 27. November 2008, 00:47
Filed under: frostfire bolt, elemental, spec, talents, leveling, frostbolt, glyph
I recently dinged level 75, and decided to give the new Frostfire Bolt (FFB) a try. The build I chose is basically a fire build without Improved Fireball, and 18 points in frost to get the full advantage of Shatter: 0/48/18 Frostfire spec.What I like about this build and Frostfire bolt in general:
- The spec has almost all the talents that make the FFB go *boom* (2 points in Burnout are missing, need lvl 77 to get the full potential of FFB)
- Hot Streak is seksy! This allows to throw out an instant Pyroblast on any two subsequent FFB (or Scorch, Fireblast or Fireball) hits.
- The build still has the full damage potential of Blizzard, thanks to Shatter, Frostbite and Improved Blizzard.
- The maximal range of FFB is larger (40y) than that of Frostbolt (30y, 36y with Arctic Reach), which makes it the perfect spell for pulling (distance + snare = even more distance)
- New fun shatter combo: Frostnova, FFB + Fireblast -> good chance that both crit and thus proc Hot Streak -> say hello to instant Pyro!
- The FFB Glyph actually makes sense (2% more base damage, +2% crit)
What I miss or don't like about it:
- I seriously miss Ice Barrier. Running around without it is like going shopping naked, and generally a bad idea on a PvP server. Ice Barrier gives you the same announcement effect as the blue colored
poison dart frogs have: don't mess with the blue dude!
Of course you don't really need Ice Barrier to survive while levelling, but it usually absorbs enought damage for you to never get hurt. Without it, I constantly lose some HP and have to regenerate more after a few fights, as I get a bad feeling starting a pull with only half of my HP left.
Ice Barrier is also essential in PvP. As a rule of thumb you can count twice its absorb amout as virtual HP, and with Shattered Barrier you gain essential utility against meele attackers (especially in AoE situations) - I miss the Water Elemental a little, but just a little. It has undisputed value and contributes a lot to DPS and utility, but hey I could live without it if I get its DPS from elsewhere. I still hate it for not scaling well (it just gets 40% of my Spellpower, but no hot/crit/haste at all) and forget to bring it out regularly (though most of the time I don't need it just for killing 1-3 mobs and then travelling again), but in the end I miss its ranged nova and separate threat pool in instances.
- I loved Deep Freeze for its croud control and mobile burst capabilities (FoF->DF->move and icelance), so I miss it now already.
- The mana consumption is way higher with a FFB or fire build than with frost. If MMOs were a little more realistic, I would pee an ocean every five minutes, I'm reallly just drinking all the time. Hot Streak with an instant Pyro waiting and no mana left = no fun.
- Blastwave is nice, but I can't seem to fall in love with Dragon's Breath. Cone of Cold feels so much better than this 'zomg look I ate chilli!" spell. For AoE I wouldn't use it anyway, for that we have Blizzard now.
- I think I hate Ignite. Sure my FFB and fire spells crit all the time, but the Ignite dot is usually just wasted as mobs tend to die before it starts ticking. When my FFB or Pyro crits and the target has 2k HP left, I could just stand there and wait 4 sec for it to die, but that's so silly and I don't have the nerves to wait, so in the end I put an end to the tragedy with a quick Fireblast before it drives me crazy. Better waste mana and ignite ticks than my sanity.
Frost is so much more honest, if you crit a nice big number responds to your action, that's instant reward and not the DoT fluff of a critting fire spell where tiny 'me too!' numbers plop up some seconds later.
All in all the FFB spec is not bad, and I'd consider it the preferred spec for instance/raid runs if your mana pool allows it. Former fire mages should love it, pulling with a snare can be so much more fun, but for frost mages it just hasn't the versatility we need.
I'm yet unsure whether I will be raiding with Frost (0/10/61) or Frostfire (0/50/21) once I reach level 80.
If only we could have the promised dual spec right away, then I'd take Frostfire for instances and raiding, and Frost for PvP, but we probably will have to wait for the 3.1 patch before we can have two specs with hopefully also two sets of Glyphs.
My biggest concern for frost is the Frostbolt Glyph. Adding 5% damage is nice for sure, but removing the snare component completely spoils frost for me. I'm playing frost since the vanilla beta, but I can't think of any issue that bothered me as much as the Frostbolt Glyph is now. If I want to be raiding, the +5% damage is a must, but then my Frostbolt is completely screwed for solo and PvP. Seriously, I just won't use that glyph, and no sane frost mage should be forced to use it.
There's only one thing you can do with the Frostbolt Glyph: put it back into the original packaging, return it to Blizzard and claim refunds because it's KAPUT.
Happy 4th Anniversary WoW!
by Tachyon on Sun. 23. November 2008, 14:00
Filed under: blizzard, event
I was quite surprised to find a letter by Blizzard in my ingame mail box today. Apparently WoW just got 4 years old, and to celebrate that, players are rewarded a Baby Blizzard Bear pet. Awww, this polar baby bear is so cute, especially when it's sitting. And it's usable account-wide!If you log in today, you also gain a feats of strenght achievment for WoW's 4th Anniversary.
New WoW Commercial with Ozzy Osbourne
by Tachyon on Sat. 22. November 2008, 02:11
Filed under: videos, fun
Ozzy vs. Arthas, awesome!
Northrend Herbalism
by Tachyon on Wed. 19. November 2008, 22:23
Filed under: professions, herbalism, herbs, northrend
Northrend's fauna is rich, and along with it come a number of new herbs that can be gathered. Wrath of the Lich King follows the herbalism pattern of The Burning Crusade by introducing another Lotus form (after Black Lotus of vanilla WoW and Fel Lotus of Burning Crusade we can not farm for Frost Lotus as an ingredient for the high-end flasks) and two new consumable herbs (Fire Leaf and Fire Seed).Leveling herbalism can be a little cumbersome when you don't know which herbs to look for in each zone and what skill level they require, so I compiled a list of all Northrend herbs, where you can find them, and at what skill level you can harvest them, maybe you find it useful:
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Goldclover (350)
Requires Herbalism skill of 350 Can be found in: Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord, Sholazar Basin, Grizzly Hills | |
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Firethorn (360)
Requires Herbalism skill of 360 Can be found in: Borean Tundra Firethorn is no herb for itself, but yields on of two consumable herbs:
The 'vulnerable to magic' side effect of Fire Seed is a little vague, but I assume it does just lower all magic resistances to zero, similar to what the Fire Leaf does with physical attacks. | |
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Talandra's Rose (385)
Requires Herbalism skill of 385 Can be found in: Zul'Drak , Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom, Drak'Tharon Keep and Gundrak | |
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Tiger Lily (400)
Requires Herbalism skill of 400 Can be found in: Sholazar Basin, Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord, Grizzly Hills and Azjol-Nerub | |
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Constrictor Grass
Can drop in: Goldclover, Talandra's Rose, Tiger Lily | |
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Adder's Tongue (400)
Requires Herbalism skill of 400 Can be found in: Sholazar Basin, Drak'Tharon Keep, Gundrak | |
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Frozen Herb (415)
Requires Herbalism skill of 415 Frozen Herb is no herb per se, but yields either Goldclover, Talandra's Rose or Tiger Lily Can be found in: Dragonblight, Zul'Drak | |
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Lichbloom (425)
Requires Herbalism skill of 425 Can be found in: The Storm Peaks, Icecrown | |
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Ice Thorn (435)
Requires Herbalism skill of 435 Can be found in: Icecrown, The Storm Peaks | |
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Frost Lotus
Can drop in: Goldclover, Talandra's Rose, Tiger Lily, Adder's Tongue, Lich Bloom, Ice Thorn |
Preparing for the Lich King
by Tachyon on Sat. 08. November 2008, 22:39
Filed under: expansion, preparation
Five more days until the new expansion Wrath of the Lich King is released, that's plenty of time to get ourselves prepared propertly.Preparation Step 1: Take a screenshot of your char
Take a last picture of yourself with all your shiny epic gear before it gets replaced by blue quest rewards and 5man loot at level 80 (when again we will look like colorblind cleaning ladies). And for later reference , also note down your current stats. I still regret that I haven't done this at level 60, I only have a vague idea of what items I wore back then and how my actual stat were.
8243 HP, 10.3k Mana, 1239 Spellpower, 24.51% Crit (302 Crit Rating), 11.02% +Hit (139 Hit Rating), 8.37% Haste (132 Haste Rating).
Preparation Step 2: Clean up your bags
Get rid of all the trade goods you longer need, throw away/sell/disenchant all the stuff you don't want to keep for sentimental reasons. Put all your off equip (PvP, resistance equip) into the bank, you need the free bag space. Consider buying larger bags, that's now probably the best investment you can do. Say 'Hello' to your new Gigantique bags if you can afford them.
Preparation Step 3: Get a new levelling build
Optimize your levelling build for maximal efficiency in stop-and-go fights, and optimize towards minimal down time. Reconsider your stats, Crit will serve you better while levelling than Haste or Hit. Killing a mob 0.5 sec faster doesn't count as much as having an additional crit and saving you from casting another spell.
I'll be levelling as deep frost, starting with this build ( http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=oZZAccIsfuhcdgfot), where I added all the snare and AE utility, and ignored the cooldown reducing talents as there will be enough idle time beween fights to not to justify them.
Preparation Step 4: Do the boring achievments now
Honestly, the exploration achievments were probably the most boring thing I ever did in WoW, but I knew if I wouldn't do them now I would do them never. New interesting content awaits us, you would be insane to spent your limited playing time doing boring stuff when the expansion is new.
Now's also the best time to do all the missing BC dungeon achievments, you'll never again find a group so easy to do them later on.
Preparation Step 5: Plan ahead for the new terrain
Print out Northrend maps early, and inform yourself what dungeons are offered at which level range so you won't miss anything in the new zones.
http://www.wotlkwiki.info is a good starting point for doing expansion related research.
Preparation Step 6: Organize levelling groups with your friends
Stick together as long as you can, it's way more fun to level and quest together in a group of friends. Do regular dungeon runs, and try not to rush for lvl 80, but rather enjoy the new expansion and levelling content while it lasts. The new endgame will come soon enough, don't panic. Just do yourself a favour and enjoy the trip while it lasts
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