So, is WOW worth going back to?

[proudft]

The 75-badge hat is usually your best option anyway, don't worry.   I think the only time I would consider set hat and 45-badge shoulders is if there is a bunch of unneeded +hit on the hat or something.

But yeah, the way they have the equipment split up is really confusing.  You can also shoot up to the tournament and one of the vendors up there has the whole set on him if you don't want to page through the armor dudes in Dalaran to find the right one.

[Ingmar]

The 95 would be a frost emblem one so don't beat yourself up over that. For most people the 'best' setup is offset 75 badge hat (ilvl 245), 4 pieces of T9 (ilvl 232). So, buying the 245 hat was probably the right thing to do.

[Morat20]

If you don't want to blow money on the AH, the next best ranged weapon is this crossbow from heroic pit of saron. Next step down is this gun from heroic TOC and this gun from normal pit of saron. I recommend against buying the 'intended BOE epic gun', it is much worse than any of the alternatives and way too expensive..

I do enough heroics that I'll probably hit it sooner or later, though I need to gear up to do heroic ToC or PoS (I don't think I can do PoS on heroic yet. Maybe).

Right now, I'm using a titanium bow of some sort.

[Merusk]

If you can't do HToC yet you're not geared enough for HPoS.   You're probably well-off enough for normal of both and the normal version also drops purples.

[Morat20]

If you can't do HToC yet you're not geared enough for HPoS.   You're probably well-off enough for normal of both and the normal version also drops purples.

Frankly, I just hit the "Random" button and let the LFG thing assign me a group and a dungeon. It's working well so far, and if it sucks, I just go back to whatever daily and requeue. Blizzard does some really rough gear-checking for that.

It's amusing that I have a purple staff (I actually stared at it for a good minute when it dropped, because the stats were obviously for a hunter -- tons of agi, sta, +AP and +crit) but it was a fucking staff. So I'm carrying that thing around, waiting for a decent gun to drop. Isn't there an engineered purple gun -- or did they not add one for WoTLK for the top-level?

[Zetor]

That's the one I linked in my previous post (the nesingwary 4000). It sucks compared to drops, it's overpriced (if you're AHing it) and takes too many annoying materials + requires a way-too-high skill level (if crafting for yourself), so don't bother. Like I said, if you want to get a BOE ranged weapon (instead of drops), "Rowan's Rifle of Silver Bullets" is your best bet.

Edit: As for melee weapons, there are some blue staves to start with, the staff of trickery from h-VH is good for a heroic drop (I assume that's what you have). After that the next step up is Marrowstrike (polearm) from heroic TOC, and then either a mix of the 1-handers from H-POS and H-FOS or the Orca Hunter's Harpoon (polearm) from H-HOR. I -think- there are some decent 1handers with +agi and stuff in the normal mode ICC dungeons, but I haven't run them too much to remember.

[bhodikhan]

"Rowan's Rifle of Silver Bullets" drops so much in ICC that I've been seeing the AH prices dropping as the supply seems to be exceeding demand on my server (Bloodhoof)

[Zetor]

Yup. I bought mine for 1k, but I've been seeing it for 600-700g nowadays. What is extra funny is people trying to sell the Nesingwary 4000 for the same price. 

[Shrike]

Problem with the Nesingwary is it has to sell for a certain price or the engineer can make more money just selling the components. Some might not have gotten the memo, but I know I haven't made one in about a year.

[Ashamanchill]

Anyone out there a shadow priest? If so how do they play at endgame? What I mean by that is, what is their style like? I have a feral druid and I'm not a huge fan of their unforgiving super reactive play styles. I'd have no problem going over to a spammy class.

Also, having you and your mount in shadow form is just cool.

[proudft]

Bad news - shadow priests are the unforgiving super reactive play style of the ranged classes.  

They are not as complicated as cat druids by like, two things to keep track of, but they are by far the most complicated of the ranged dps:


You start off with Vampiric Touch (a dot with a cast time), then Devouring Plague (an instant dot).  Whenever either of those wears off, you need to reapply it.

Then after that start you need to get your Misery stacks up, so you Mind Flay once or twice to get that going.  Then Shadow Word: Pain (another instant dot, but will not need to be reapplied since later Mind Flays will refresh it).

Then you use Mind Blast whenever it is up and Mind Flay whenever it is not, while reapplying any of the other stuff that falls off.  It is quite the jugglng act, but fairly fun.

(For AOE you just lazily Mind Sear, but a cat druid would just Swipe then, so no difference there.)

[Ashamanchill]

 

[Fordel]

What you want is a Moonkin.


You cast Nuke A until the magical moon says you cast Nuke B.

[WoopeeTuralyon]

What you want is a Moonkin.


You cast Nuke A until the magical moon says you cast Nuke B.

I guess Moonfire and Insect Swarm DoTs are out of the rotation these days?? I haven't played a boomkin since BC, and you kept the dawts up then.

[Fordel]

You keep both up, but there is no special order or priority or anything like a shadow priest.



If you are in the super awesome ICC gear, you can even drop Moonfire entirely.

[Ingmar]

Elemental shaman is even easier, really, since your rotation is more predictable and it only has one DoT to keep up instead of 2. Also the elemental DoT doesn't make you go 'arghghgh I need to recast but I'll lose precious eclipse time', it has more interaction with the regular nukes in that it pretty much HAS to be up for lava burst.

Arcane mage is the faceroll prizewinner though.

[Lantyssa]

And Eclipse always procs right as you need to reapply Moonfire and Insect Swarm.  Always.

[Ashamanchill]

Yeah I got some fair moonkin gear, but he's not my favorite playstyle. The reason I asked about the SP was because I'm probably going to level up some fresh new alts in Cataclysm.

Elemental Shaman you say? This is an intriguing development.

[Brennik]

How's your connection? Playing elemental is just  if your ping fluctuates wildly or you have packet loss. DPSing in highly mobile fights is also bloody annoying.

[Ingmar]

I'm not sure there's any caster that's very forgiving about ping issues. Affliction locks maybe, but it is pretty bad if you miss a refresh or whatever.

[Brennik]

True that. Elemental rotation is pretty easy up until you add movement and lag into the equation, just wanted to warn him. Leveling shamans should be way less obnoxious in Cataclysm too. At the moment I wouldn't really recommend it, at least not as elemental.

[Morat20]

I'm not sure there's any caster that's very forgiving about ping issues. Affliction locks maybe, but it is pretty bad if you miss a refresh or whatever.

Frost Mage.

I'm just...gonna blizzard those guys why Winter's Chill stacks. I guess if it's a boss, I'll use frostbolt.

Of course, mine's level...52. I suspect they get more spells. :)

[lesion]

Nobody say anything.

[WoopeeTuralyon]

Nobody say anything.

Oh, the pain of restraint.

[Ashamanchill]

Man, even I know that frost isn't-oh wait. Uh, nothing.

[Morat20]

Nobody say anything.

Did I forget the green? :)

I admit, I'm a little spoiled because my mage is stuck running BRD at 52. So it really is just a shit-ton of blizzards, broken only by the random boss.

[K9]

Elemental shaman is a LOT easier than shadow priest. Enhance is a lot more interesting and challenging to play. Shadow priest is a micromanaging headache to even get regular DPS, let alone stellar DPS.

[Zetor]

Especially when almost everything (sometimes even bosses  ) in a heroic dies before you can get your DPS cycle going and your alternative (mind sear spam) is kinda weak in pulls of only 2-3-4 mobs.

Ramp-up time = suxxor.

[dd0029]

Destruction warlock are fairly easy fun.  Three buttons ftw.  Actually 4, but most of it's three buttons. Cast immolate, keep Chaos bolt and Conflag on cool down and cast incinerate when they are.  They blow things up right fine.  They are real fun in the 70 pvp bracket.  That's where you three button people. 

[Shrike]

Especially when almost everything (sometimes even bosses  ) in a heroic dies before you can get your DPS cycle going and your alternative (mind sear spam) is kinda weak in pulls of only 2-3-4 mobs.

Ramp-up time = suxxor.

Heck, even DKs suffer from this. Every try and get diseases up with a bunch of T10 dps? Isn't really possible. Basically, it reduces you to throwing D&D and BB spam. Bo-ring. Enhance is even worse--you're always out of mana from dropping totems every 5-10 seconds.

Still, characters geared like this really wouldn't be doing heroics at all if it weren't for the badge system. Considering the alternative, I can deal with it, but it makes for some seriously boring gameplay every night as you do your "chores".

[Morat20]

Destruction warlock are fairly easy fun.  Three buttons ftw.  Actually 4, but most of it's three buttons. Cast immolate, keep Chaos bolt and Conflag on cool down and cast incinerate when they are.  They blow things up right fine.  They are real fun in the 70 pvp bracket.  That's where you three button people. 

I hate warlocks in PvP. It doesn't matter how fast I kill you, I know I'm going to die shortly thereafter thanks to the 43 million DoTs I have slowly crushing me.

Of course, most of my PvP experience is as a hunter wherein I have a grand total of jack shit with which to fix that. I mean, at least druids I can throw up Aspect of the Leaf and pretend it helps.

[dd0029]

I hate warlocks in PvP. It doesn't matter how fast I kill you, I know I'm going to die shortly thereafter thanks to the 43 million DoTs I have slowly crushing me.

Of course, most of my PvP experience is as a hunter wherein I have a grand total of jack shit with which to fix that. I mean, at least druids I can throw up Aspect of the Leaf and pretend it helps.

I agree with you there.  Warlocks were the bane of my hunter in the 70s bracket.  Just about everyone else is kiteable.  You have to get the drop on locks or be in a pack with a healer.  About the only ones I did not worry about were the demonology locks.  Felguards are nasty, but you can burst the lock down before the felguard can do enough to you.  Deflection with the spell bouncing can help if you catch the dot application instantly.  They are going to get corruption on you, but deflection can ususally catch CoA, UA and Haunt.  But three minutes is a long CD in PvP.  If I get that off, make a beeline for the healing hut or hope a healing buff was up.

[WoopeeTuralyon]

I generally only drop totems for fights I know will be somewhat longer than the typical non-ICC heroic trash fight. Of course, some people then bitch at you to drop them, but oh well.

[Morat20]

I generally only drop totems for fights I know will be somewhat longer than the typical non-ICC heroic trash fight. Of course, some people then bitch at you to drop them, but oh well.

People bitch about EVERYTHING. They bitch about your gear, your spec, your DPS, that you dropped or didn't drop totems that you dropped the wrong totems, that your rotation is wrong.

Fuck, if there's one universal it's that there's always going to be some asshole telling you how to do your job -- mostly while utterly failing at his.

"You need to respec blah-blah-blah". Shut up, dickweed. Either my DPS, my healing, or my ability to hold aggro is sufficient or it's not.

[Azazel]

Wow. your battlegroups must be fucked up. People barely say a word in the heroics on mine. maybe 2-3/5 people will say "hello" and then "thanks for group" at the end with pretty much nothing else the rest of the time.