Blog Archive by month: December 2010
Cataclysm Enchantments and Gems
by Tachyon on Tue. 14. December 2010, 22:10
Filed under: mage, cataclysm, enchantment, gem
This is more a note to myself, but might be of use to you out there being in the same situation, getting ready for raiding by enchanting/gemming your blue (heroic) Cataclysm gear, so I thought I'd publish it here:Cataclysm Enchantments
Head and Shoulders (sic!) enchantments are again bind-on-account items sold by two factions in the game. The legs enchantments are created by Tailors and come in two qualities. New in Cataclysm are off-hand item enchantments, and there's no specific 2H enchantments in the game yet.
Head:
+60 Intellect and +35 Critical Strike Rating
Shoulder:
+50 Intellect and +25 Haste Rating
+30 Intellect and +20 Haste Rating
Cloak:
+50 Intellect
Chest:
+20 all stats
Wrist:
+65 Intellect
+65 Critical Strike Rating
+65 Haste Rating
Weapon (1H):
+500 Intellect for 12 sec (proc)
+450 Haste Rating for 12 sec (proc)
Weapon (2H):
no specific enchantments (yet)
Off-Hand:
+100 Intellect
Hands:
+65 Mastery Rating
Legs:
+95 Intellect and +80 Stamina
+95 Intellect and +55 Spirit
+55 Intellect and +65 Stamina
+55 Intellect and +45 Spirit
Feet:
+35 Mastery rating and slightly increased movement speed
+50 Hit Rating
Cataclysm Gems
BLUE
Blue gems give +Hit Rating, Spell Penetration and Stamina for Casters. As the latter two are only interesting for PvP, I'm listing only the +Hit Rating gems:
Rigid Ocean Sapphire +40 Hit Rating
Perfect Rigid Zephyrite +35 Hit Rating
Rigid Zephyrite +30 Hit Rating
PURPLE
Purple gems have mixed stats from red (Spellpower) and blue (+Hit Rating, Spell Penetration or Stamina). Again, only the PvE relevant ones are listed:
Veiled Demonseye +20 Intellect and +20 Hit Rating
Perfect Veiled Nightstone +18 Intellect and +17 Hit Rating
Veiled Nightstone +15 Intellect and +15 Hit Rating
RED
Red gems are certainly the best, as pure +Intellect is found here. Intellect results in higher Spellpower, higher Critical Strike Rating, a larger Mana pool, and better Mana regeneration (directly by MP/5, and indirectly with Evocaton).
Brilliant Inferno Ruby +40 Intellect
Perfect Brilliant Carnelian +35 Intellect
Brilliant Carnelian +30 Intellect
ORANGE
Orange gems have mixed stats from red (Intellect) and yellow (+ Critical Strike, Haste or Mastery Rating):
Artful Ember Topaz +20 Intellect and +20 Mastery Rating
Perfect Artful Hessonite +18 Intellect and +17 Mastery Rating
Artful Hessonite +15 Intellect and +15 Mastery Rating
Potent Ember Topaz +20 Intellect and +20 Critical Strike Rating
Perfect Potent Hessonite +18 Intellect and +17 Critical Strike Rating
Potent Hessonite +15 Intellect and +15 Critical Strike Rating
Reckless Ember Topaz +20 Intellect and +20 Haste Rating
Perfect Reckless Hessonite +18 Intellect and +17 Haste Rating
Reckless Hessonite +15 Intellect and +15 Haste Rating
YELLOW
Yellow gems boost only secondary stats: + Critical Strike Rating, Haste Rating and Mastery Rating.
Smooth Amberjewel +40 Crit Rating
Perfect Smooth Alicite +35 Crit Rating
Smooth Alicite +30 Crit Rating
Quick Amberjewel +40 Haste Rating
Perfect Quick Alicite +35 Haste Rating
Quick Alicite +30 Haste Rating
Fractured Amberjewel +40 Mastery
Perfect Fractured Alicite +35 Mastery
Fractured Alicite +30 Mastery
Cataclysm Preparation
by Tachyon on Wed. 01. December 2010, 23:44
Filed under: Cataclysm, Expansion, Preparation
The Cataclysm expansion is now less than a week away, so it's about time starting the preparations to make the transition as painless as possible. Two years ago, I wrote about Preparing for the Lich King, and my preparation advise is now almost the same as back then:Preparation Step 1: Take a screenshot of your char
Before you start exchanging your ilvl-277 epics with all sorts of colorful rags and scrap, take a last screenshot of your character in all its glory of the last WotLK days!
That's me, in the gear I used to participate in the last glorious raids of WotLK. I've been wearing the same equipment now for about two months, and as we stopped our progression (still at 11/12 ICC 25 HC, Halion 25 HC still not beaten), I didn't receive any upgrades since then.
Stats (self-buffed with Arcane Brilliance and Molten Armor):
- Gear Score: 6329
- Average Item Level: 274
- Health: 33.1k
- Mana: 34.5k
- Intellect: 2059
- Spirit: 249
- Spellpower: 3591
- Hit: 448 / 17.08%
- Crit: 1135 (+24.72%) / 41.02%
- Haste: 954 / +17.08%
- Mastery: 10.68 (8.00+2.68 )
Preparation Step 2: Maximize your bag space
Get bags as big as possible, and clear them as much as you can. As soon as you enter the new regions, you want to have as much bag space available as you can afford. The next town may be miles away when levelling, so your slots will fill up quickly with all sorts of quest items, loot and vendor trash.
Throw away your PvP stuff, it's of no use as soon as you reach lvl 85. Put any offspec items on the bank, and try to keep no more than a handful of items for nostalgic purpose.
Sell anything you can, it's worth more now than in a week.
Preparation Step 3: Chose a new leveling spec
Mine will, of course, be frost: Mage 0/2/34 Frost Leveling Spec (80)
It's very efficient for short fights, the pet is awesome, the survivability priceless. Plus, it's very mana efficient. Arcane can be fine for levelling as well, now that you can snare from the very first Arcane Blast you cast.
Fire is rather inefficient for soloing, the DoTs have no use when the target dies within seconds. If you intend levelling with instances, Frost and Arcane are good choices for a complimentary group spec. The new instances are though, and fire is likely to mess with crowd control effects, so it's a no-go here as well.
Preparation Step 4: Max your professions
At least on your main, you should have your 2 primary specs and all secondary specs (First Aid, Cooking, Fishing) maxed when Cataclysm launches. Gathering professions maxed on your twinks is of course another benefit.
Preparation Step 5: Plan ahead for the new terrain
From lvl 80-85, Cataclysm offers two entrance zones (of which you should take the one that most appeals to you, for me it's Mount Hyjal) and 3 subsequent zones:
- Mount Hyjal (80 - 82)
-
Vashj'ir (80 - 82)
Subzones: Kelp'thar Forest, Shimmering Expanse, Abyssal Depths - Deepholm (82 - 83)
- Uldum (83 - 84)
- Twilight Highlands (84 - 85)
Print out zone maps of the new regions, mark points of interest (villages of your and the opposing faction, and other known quest hubs), that should help you finding your path through the content.
My intention is to focus on questing, and spend no more than a third of the time in instances with my guild mates. Questing helps discovering the new factions, and start getting reputation with them, this is an important step in gearing preparation for when you reach the end game, so better start early on.
Here's a list of the new dungeons, note that you have to have revealed the dungeon entrance before you can queue for the according dungeon in the dungeon finder tool.
The new 5-men high-level dungeons are:
- Abyssal Maw - Throne of the Tides (80-81)
- Blackrock Mountain - Blackrock Caverns (80-81)
- The Skywall - Vortex Pinnacle (82-84)
- Deepholm - Stonecore (82-84)
- Uldum - Lost City of Tol'vir (85)
- Uldum - Halls of Origination (85)
- Grim Batol - Grim Batol (85)
- Westfall - Deadmines (HC, 85)
- Silverpine Forrest - Shadowfang Keep (HC, 85)
Raid-Dungeons (10/25 Raid):
- Blackrock Mountain - Blackwing Descent
- The Skywall - Throne of the Four Winds
- Grim Batol - Bastion of Twilight
- The Firelands
- Caverns of Time - War of the Ancients
Good luck with your preparations, and wish you a splendid start in the new expansion!
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