PvP Gear for Badges

Eonar entered Phase 3 of the Sunwell Isle progression, and now all sorts of neat gear is available for purchase via Badges of Justice or Tier'd tokens.

I've been languishing with Boots of Savagery since the mid-60's (months!), if only because it's hard to find raw strength on mail armor - most seem to be lolhuntergear, with non-scaling attack power and mp5. Yucky.

So after another Kara run or two, looks like I'll be able to buy Veteran's Linked Sabatons for a mere 40 badges - and more importantly, I can completely avoid EotS to get them! :)

Head on my Shoulders

Despite Alterac Valley being far more, uhm "balanced" after 2.4 (no more easymode honor), I managed to slog through enough matches tonight to finish the 14.5k honor needed for my 2nd Season 1 armor piece: the Gladiator's Linked Helm. With the two-piece bonuses (from both Gladiator's Linked and Seer's Linked armor sets), I'm now up to almost 200 resilience, which has made a notable difference in my PvP survivability - but I still (at some point) should get the movement-freeing trinket.

But for now, I'm done with BGs. Getting the axes, shoulders and helmet have been the very definition of grind, and not really a very fun one. All the unsportsmanlike commentary and juvenillia has really gotten on my nerves. (Sure, I know juvenillia's not a word, but it should be.)

Anyway, the whole point of getting welfare epics was to gear-up for PvE, and I think I've accomplished what I wanted to for now. Sure my boots are 6 levels outdated and I need a better crit trinket and cloak, but I figure these other bits will just have to come from lucky drops. Or from impulsive auction house purchases.

GG.

Complaint Registered

Yesterday's daily PvP was Warsong Gulch, which already ranks as my 2nd least-favorite battleground below EotS. I gave it three solid attempts, but alas came away with only three marks and a pittance of honor.

On the final game, the Alliance went to 0/2 caps. General disorganization, a complete lack of offense and no defense seemed to be the cause. Ugh. Since everyone was busy dying midfield, I grabbed the flag solo and ghost-wolfed it back to our flag room. Suddenly cries of, "let them win" and "drop the flag" went up over chat. Another chimes in with, "lets get this over with, I have #%?# to do." I angrily drop the flag and type, "pfft nice attitude."

Then I see Complaint Registered.

Are you kidding me? Someone effing reported me for wanting to win?!

Now in some BGs, there does come a tipping point when "just let them win" becomes appropriate. Like in Arathi Basin when you find yourself holding 1 node to their 4, with a 1,000 resource point deficit. OK fine, let them win. Warsong Gulch, however, is not AB.

L2WSG, quitters.

/endRant

2.4 First Impressions

After last night's Kara run I had a chance to run up to Quel'Danas (aka Sunwell Isle) and poke around a bit. Having never seen Blood Elf architecture firsthand before, it was really cool to experience fresh content and new quests.

Getting There
Alliance have a flight point at Ironforge which will get you there pretty quickly via a loading screen while in-flight. Unfortunately, flying back to IF does not seem to work the same way, where you hit all those flight points in Eastern Plaguelands, etc. on the way back. So use your hearthstone to get back if possible (until the Shat portal gets unlocked). Tip: if you log out mid-flight, you'll land at the next flight point along your original route.

The Isle
Aside from being graphically beautiful, the storytellers at Blizzard did a great job of making it feel like you've landed in a warzone and need to get to work right away. The place was still a zoo at 1am server time, lots of folks running around - some looking very lost, which added to the realism of the storyline. :) When I started out, the quest givers reported 39% progress, but 30 mins later they were at 41%, so no doubt by now phase 1 is close to being over. At this point the island basically has nothing available other than a flight point, quartermaster and quest givers. Over time more facilities will be unlocked.

Other highlights:

Dailies
It looks like there are lots of new options for dailies, which is fantastic. I find the bombing run quest extremely annoying and the Simon Says one mind-numbing, so it's good to have other things to try. There are both PvP and PvE dailies, scattered over Shattrath and the new Isle.

Teleport to Caverns of Time
There's now a representative from the CoT in the lower city who can teleport you directly there. Genius! Now they just need one for Sunwell Isle, maybe that will come later?

Marks for Honor
A new repeatable quest allows you to turn in 1 of each BG mark (AB, AV, EOTS and WSG) for ~300 honor. This is all win, except for needing the EOTS ones. Bleh.

Black War Elekk
This thing is way hotter in-person (in-game?). After the Season 1 helm, the elekk may be my next PvP goal: only 30 marks each from AB, AV and WSG.

Reputation PvP Armor
I went around and collected all the Seer's Linked pieces but as I tried to mix/match them into my current set, I only found that the chest and legs integrated well in my setup. RatingBuster FTW. I mostly gem'ed up with strength and crit, and now feel like I've got a decent setup as far as a hybrid PvP/PvE set goes.

Last night in Kara we had too many melee DPS for (Iron) Maiden, so I was rotated out to help heal - I'll likely go buy a set of Seer's healer gear to help in those situations. It's nice to have the option of a premade gear set for trying out alternate specs! Now just have to Learn2Healz.

Patch 2.4 Notes

With patch 2.4 dropping today, I was going to start a post about Shaman-specific updates, but Matthew Rossi over at Wowinsider beat me to the punch with an excellent write-up.

Things We Like:

• Ghost Wolf cast time down to 2 seconds, instant-cast if talented - handy for PvP or PvE grinding.
• Totem global cooldown reduced to 1 second - great for instances/grouping.
• Integrated Totem Timer icons in default UI - with individually dispellable totems! (begone, Searing Totem)
  
• Toughness for PvP viability - not that I'll be re-spec'ing for PvP (I'm stubborn that way), but it's good to know this option is available.
• Tremor Totem now ticks every 3 instead of 5 seconds.
• PvP Reputation Armor

Things We Don't Like:

• Shamanistic Rage nerf - now only 15 seconds of incoming damage reduction. Boo PvE nerfz.
  

Now just hoping my mods still work for tonight's Kara run!

UPDATE: looks like Omen has a 2.4 update, and DamageMeters is out, so going to try Recap tonight instead.

Alterac Valley Tactics

As of Patch 2.3, it's well known that Enhancement Shaman suffer from efficacy issues in battlegrounds, but one of the reasons why I like AV is that it combines many PvE elements along with PvP, giving us Enhancers more to contribute. Here's my usual tactic:

Make a beeline for Galv along with the rest of the offense. Plop a Searing Totem and Tremor Totem and then go to work windfury'ing.

Afterwards mount up and head directly south for Frost Wolf Relief Hut. Along the way, check to see if Frost Wolf Graveyard has been capped. If not, assist by kiting the guards away from the flag so another can cap the flag - or, if alone - pop Earth Elemental totem and take out each mob from behind.

Continuing on to the RH, assist any ongoing battles. Then head up one (if not both) FW towers and down any archers (using Windwall Totem, the only application for this totem in the entire game as far as I can tell!).

Once the towers are secured and everything caps (reducing the number of elites standing with Drek), someone invariably yells, "all in!" My opening attack is an Earth Shock against one of the two wolves guarding Drek. This draws aggro and keeps the wolf off the tank (Shaman Off-tanking FTW!). Then take out the other wolf before going to work on Drek himself, who's usually well below 50% health by this point. Usually pop Heroism and Fire Elemental totem if available.

Notice the trend here? I help out in PvP where I can, but mostly go after PvE targets where Enhancement is already most effective.

General Tactics
Frost Shock and Earthbind Totems are your most effective tools when fighting close-in. Destory other Shaman totems - not all players understand how much of an edge totems can be and will often ignore them to their detriment.

Always go after PvP opponents before PvE mobs when trying to secure an objective. Move around like you've had too much Red Bull - rapidly circling your enemy does make it harder for them to target you, and in general just frustrates them.

GG!

Melee Rotations

Goeben from Chain Heal recently posted a comment about trying out Enhancement for grinding, so here are some melee rotation ideas for those looking to give dual-wielding pew-pew a go.

Soloing
If you can pick a spot between a large number of mobs, you'll want to set up with a few totems, in this order of importance: Grace of Air (for crit), Strength of Earth (attack power), Searing Totem (extra DPS) and if needed, either Healing or Mana totems. For maximum mana efficiency, pull using rank 1 or 2 lightning bolts. Then the basic melee rotation then goes:

• Stormstrike and auto-attack
  
• wait for Shamanistic Focus, then Flame Shock
• wait for another Focus
  
• Stormstrike again if it's up
  
• Earth Shock
• repeat
  

Don't forget to use Shamanistic Rage when you're low on mana or are taking big hits, it restores mana on every hit and also reduces all forms of incoming damage. With some discipline and waiting for Focus procs, you should be relatively downtime-free as far as mana is concerned.

If you've pulled more than one mob, drop a Stoneclaw totem for a few seconds of crowd control, or Earth Elemental if you're in big trouble.

Groups
The rotation is pretty similar here, but with mana preservation being less of an issue in groups with managed pulls, the need to wait for Focus procs is eliminated - you just want to do maximum sustained DPS:

• Stormstrike
• Flame Shock
• Earth Shock
• repeat

PvP
Player vs. player is an entirely different animal, where your primary goal is to slow your opponent, then start melee. My typical PvP rotation is:

• Frost Shock
  
• Earth Bind totem (if there's time/appropriate)
• Stormstrike (and thereafter anytime it's up)
  
• Either Earth Shock for burst or Frost Shock again

Using a combination of Frost Shocks and Earth Bind, you should be able to keep them slowed and within range. My advice would also be to avoid going 1-on-1 against rogues, since you'll be lucky to get a shock off before being paralyzed into oblivion. :)

PvP Weekend

Given that it was Alterac Valley bonus honor weekend, it seemed like a good time to grind up some honor and marks for teh welfare epix. Unfortunately, I also needed 40 Eye of the Storm marks (20 for each 1-handed weapon) which turned out to be a completely demoralizing affair but is now thankfully over. Would you believe 2 wins, 35 losses?

Thank Elune for Alterac Valley, though. By the end of the bonus weekend I was having to dump excess AV marks for potions, and was surprised to find that the Stormpike Battle Charger could be had for only 50 marks! No reputation requirement, no gold, just marks!

Now I'm just waiting for Eonar to come back up to see if I have enough honor for my 2nd Gladiator's Cleaver. :)

Efficiency FTW

In a span of 2.5 hours tonight, I managed to finish all three big daily quests and wound up with two epics! Today's daily dungeon and heroic dungeon both happened to be Steamvaults, which I've done in both modes before. Found a PUG and blew through pretty fast in spite of the hunter who refused to trap because "we're doing pretty well without CC."

OK. Hold on right there.

BigRedKitty would so disapprove. It's not a question of "doing pretty well," it's a matter of getting into good habits, honing your skills for when it really matters, and making things easier for everyone else in the party. Not trapping is like not using totems. L2trap.

So we tried to keep the group together and go back in Heroic, but we lost our tank (and trapless hunter thank god) and it seemed that all the tanks on Eonar went to bed early. So while doing mining loops, a call went out for melee DPS, heroic SV for "just the last boss." Felt a bit guilty about leaving my party, but I /whispered anyway.

"How's your damage?" they ask. I was feeling pretty cocky, having been #1 on the last boss meter in regular SV... "A few bosses into Kara," I replied. Pfft. (As if that means anything, I totally give all credit to my kickass guild for taking my charity-case-green-gear-wearing ass into Kara... twice.)

But it worked, I was in. :)

First attempt was great until 4%. Then blam, wipe. Hmm... woops forgot to pop Heroism. L2heroism. Ate some strength food and downed an agility pot, lest we forget Heroic bosses are basically like raid bosses, so every little bit helps.

After the 2nd (3rd?) water tank went down, we seemed to be "in rhythm" so I fire off Heroism and down goes Warlord Kalithresh in short order. Woot! One badge, a completed daily quest (for two more badges!), and Wave-Fury Vambraces in 20 minutes. Of course the bracers are offspec, but I banked 'em anyway, cuz ya never know. L2heal? Nah!

So after the quest turn-ins I find myself with 20 Badges of Justice, just enough to replace my wrong-spec Totem of the Plains with Stonebreaker's Totem!

As if this post isn't long enough, I capped off the night going 1W/1L in Alterac Valley (the daily PvP), with both matches lasting less than 15 minutes each. Roughly 1,600 honor plus 4 marks.

All in all, not a bad night. :)

Merely Honored

ZOMGWTFBBQ. It appears that the reputation requirements for the upcoming PvP rare armor sets (like Seer's Linked Battlegear for us Enhancement Shaman) have been reduced to merely Honored for all five pieces. Woot, I'm already there! /sighrelief

Now just have to wait until 2.4 actually comes out...

Thinkin' DPS

While I've been doing a lot of thinking around armor lately (mostly for aesthetic reasons), the reality is that Enhancement Shaman are all about DPS - so I also need to also be thinking about weapons. Especially considering that while raiding/instancing, I'm typically near full health, only taking the occasional AOE damage.

Currently I've got two blues (Reflex Blades and Mag'hari Fury Brand), both with Crusader enchants. Not terrible, but we're still only looking at a base DPS of 103. It's looking like the best available (and predictably attainable) options for me are the Season 1 weapons, either Gladiator's Cleaver or Pummeler. With two of those equipped, base DPS would be 136.2. (Even just one Gladiator MH plus the Fury Brand OH ups my base DPS to 122.5.)

Problem: 36,000 honor plus 40 EOTS marks for both. Ouch. I think I have about 7,000 honor and 7 EOTS marks, and it's been painful to even get that far. :)

Shoulders

Have I mentioned that I'm obsessed with finding better shoulders? No doubt it's some form of epeenery, but my Netherstorm Shoulderguards of the Soldier just ain't cuttin' it. The stats are decent enough for an Enhancement Shaman, but they're undersized and look like an auction house green - because, they are, in fact, an auction house green.

Enter Patch 2.4, where we'll supposedly be able to buy a matched set of PvP-geared armor for a smidge of gold and rep. Throw in a few PvE gems and I should be ready to rock with some decent looking kit. Currently I have enough rep to get the shoulders and gloves, and with a few more Keepers of Time runs (3?) I'll have enough rep to get the skirt. Err, kilt? Then, it's either grinding Sha'tar or Honor Hold rep to get the 4-piece set bonus of a faster Stormstrike cooldown. Woot.

UPDATE: KoT revered!
UPDATE 2: All pieces only require Honored now?!

Endgame

Getting over the 70 hump felt like a huge accomplishment, but luckily there's still plenty to do:

Shadow Labs - Got my first Kara key frag last night, but it's really not an Enhancement-Shammy-friendly place... I got owned by our mind-controlled hunter (that was embarrassing), and then again on Murmur's sonic blast (twice). Ugh. Makes me consider respecc'ing Elem/Enh so I have more options for doing ranged DPS.

PvP - Finally entered Arathi Basin for the first time. The first match was haxored by the Horde: they had captured two nodes before our gates even opened. WTF, reported. The 2nd match was close but it seemed that everyone fell into place as far as knowing where they should be and what they should be doing. Four marks and a handful of honor kills, not bad for an hour of play. I always feel like PvP makes me a better PvE player anyway, so it's something I'll be doing more because...

Gear - I seem to be obsessed with getting better shoulders (and matching armor). After some research, Welfare Epics are starting to look nice - the Arena Season 1 rewards are decent, and it's conceivable that after a few weeks of occasional PvP I'll be able to build a nice set that I can gem for PvE, too.

Oh, and I'm still enamored with flying, but after re-amassing almost 1k gold after the flyer purchase, I don't think I'll be actively working on an epic flyer just yet - maybe after Wrath when income is likely to take another boost.