Tuesday, November 25, 2008

No more FAP for Ferals!! Reduction in Druid armor!

Well i must admit, when i hear the word FAP i have a laugh, as it has been known to mean other things. In this case i am referring to Feral Attack Power, Blizz is changing the way Feral Druids use weaps, instead of FAP they will have Druid Feral attack power (AP) scale based on the DPS of the item.

Link here
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/26/12891010295-upcoming-feral-changes-part-ii.html

Also in this post it mentions Bears will lose armor, now i've heard this news before, but i guess i haven't written about it yet.

Blizz has stated that Bears will no longer get the multiplier for bonus armor items such as weaps, trinkets, rings, necks and cloaks. The multiplier will only affect cloth and leather items.

Blizz are compenstating Ferals by improving the Survival of the Fittest Talent to increase armor contribution from items by 22%/33%/66% making it quite similiar to the current armor bonus.

Is this a good thing? Well i think it depends on how they implement these multiplier bonuses to Tree and Moonkin form, will Moonkin and Tree get multiplier bonuses from these items? I haven't seen a post stating it either way yet.

In general, i think it's a good thing as it does give Bears more options in what tanking trinkets, rings, cloaks and weaps to use (although i haven't seen an armor necklace yet)

Since vanilla WoW tank Druids have been pigeonholed into using certain items (The Warden Staff springs to mind), those Druids that mistakenly didn't choose Mark of Tyranny back when doing Blackrock Spire quests kicked themselves for years when wanting to maximise their tanking abilities until new trinkets came out in TBC.

This change will give Bear Tanks a lot more options when choosing tanking gear.

With Blizz trying to balance the stats between all the classes, i'm sure this will eventually work out, but as with all changes that are made, there will be teething problems.

Ony and ZG Soloable at 80!

OK not exactly stealth running material, but since i'm not 80 yet and haven't had the chance to stealth the new instances and write up guides, i thought it would be useful to post news for Druids and Rogues, obviously since my main is a Druid my posts will probably have a Druid bias, but i am working on my Rogue (albeit a lot slower then i would like)

Found an interesting post on the official WoW forums by a level 80 Feral Druid that has managed to Solo Onyxia easily, 12 minutes of work netted him 177g + T2 epics and blues.

Original Post
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12890945951&sid=1


I know how the official WoW forums likes to swallow posts so i will summarise.

He's downed the following bosses in ZG

Raptor
Snake
Tiger
Panther
Spider
Hakaar

(Been a long time since i did ZG myself, so i can't remember if all these are correct)

And he's downed Onyxia in Cat form.

For Ony he uses mangle a lot, phase 2, he goes bear and swipes, then back to cat in phase 3.

I'm looking forward to 80 myself, i also like to do stupid fun stuff.

More AoE for Rogues and Kitties

With the increased amount of AoE needed in current instances, Blizz has thrown Rogues and Kitties a bone by increasing their AoE abilities.

Rogues will no longer have a CD for Fan of Knives (currently 10 seconds), and they're re-doing the way damage is calculated to make it a little more effective.

Kitties will be given a new swipe ability as a base ability.

Here's the link to the Blue post in the official WoW forums.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12891294995&sid=1

(coming in a minor content patch if your too lazy to click on the link, should be on the PTR soonish)

I'm not sure how useful these abilities will be in leveling. (If your not 80 yet)

Druid Balance specs have been given amazing AoE in WOTLK, i'm a slow quester myself, and i've heard the first Druid to hit 80 actually did a ton of AoE farming, from what i read some people that AoE level say they can clear 250-350k per hour of XP unrested.

I decided to give it a go myself in Dragonblight for an hour and only managed to do about 400k WITH RESTED. Not too horrible (and definitely faster than my questing abilities) but still not as high as i would of liked.

So for those that don't know the numbers, for me (and a few people i've spoken to) it takes us about 7 hours of played time to do a level, with my the AoE grind (provided i have rested XP) i should be able to clear a level in about 3-4 hours.

At the moment it's about 1.5 million XP per level, mind you i'm only level 74 still (i know i know hurry up and get to 80 so i can post some guides)

I doubt Kitty swipe will be as effective as Moonkin (and possibly) Resto grinding, but Fan of Knives definitely looks like it may have some prospects, i'll have to work on my Rogue some more to know for sure.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

New Stealth Enchant

WOTLK has introduced a new stealth enchant into our stealthing arsenal

Enchant Cloak - Shadow Armor
5 sec cast
Tools:

Runed Titanium Rod
Reagents:
Infinite Dust (20), Greater Cosmic Essence (12), Abyss Crystal
Permanently enchant a cloak to increase stealth slightly and Agility by 10. Requires a level 60 or higher item.

The recipe is sold by Vanessa Sellers in Dalaran and you need to be a level 440 enchanter to cast it.

Unfortunately i can't dig up any info on the effectiveness of the stealth portion of the enchant, but i would assume it to be no powerful then the classic Enchant Cloak - Stealth

For most stealthers we use a low level BOE cloak that we swap out when it's time to fight.

Unless the stealth portion of this enchant is better then the existing enchant i don't see many stealthers taking this option since this enchant looks expensive (at least at the time being)

This enchant looks more suitable to PVPers who need the extra edge in getting the jump over their competition.

For the raiding min/maxers i would expect them to get Enchant Cloak - Major Agility or Enchant Cloak - Greater Speed over this one

Monday, November 17, 2008

Night Elves still have increased stealth

Well the Shadowmeld tooltip no longers states it increases a Night Elf's stealth level, because it doesn't. This led me to believe that Night Elves lost their increased stealth racial. (I was wrong)

What Blizz has done is they've taken the increased stealth out of the shadowmeld racial and given it a new Night Elf racial name Elusiveness.

Elusiveness
Reduces the chance enemies have to detect you while Shadowmelded or Stealthed.

This is a passive effect that works anytime you are stealthed, prowled or shadowmelded.

As before it gives you +5 stealth levels (that's 1 character level) of stealth and this change was introduced in 3.0.2

(so pretty much nothing has changed)

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Boots of Displacement no longer available :(

Well with 3.0.2 came the new Naxx, unfortunately this means old Naxx has been removed and with it the best stealthing boots in the game are no longer available :(

People who are already the proud owners of a pair of Boots of Displacement will be able to wear them around proudly like a kid wearing a pair of mint Air Jordans

I only had a very few chances to run Naxx myself, so was never able to pick up a pair which is dissapointing.

Rogues don't have to worry as much Darkmantle Boots (a rogue only item) are still available and also provide the same stealth level.

The rest of us will have to stick with our +5 stealth booties (Boots of Displacement and Darkmantle boots both give +8 stealth)

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Wrath of the Lich King Live!

As i'm sure you all know by now, Wrath of the Lich King is now live!!

It's only been 2 days yet there are already lvl 80 characters on my realm and Deathknights in the 70's!

I can see a lot of people have come back to the game as my server has queues of over 2 hours during peak times :(

I've been slow with the levelling myself, only having just dinged 71 after 2 days, but i did get the opportunity to run Utgarde Keep (unfortuantely not stealthed)

It was very easy, as i'm sure it's built for people in greens, and i was able to heal it as a balance spec. Our group had some decently geared people.

On the plus side, when i run an instance i always look at the stealth side of things, and I would say from the layout it looks easy enough to stealth.

Of course only time will tell, as i didn't check if any of the mobs had stealth seeing abilities.

Enjoy the expansion, i'm keen to get to 80 and start stealth running again, but i admit i suck at quests, so it could be a little while before i get some new guides up.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Shadowmeld in World PVP

As an Alliance Druid I'm quite enjoying the new Shadowmeld, I never really realised how much I ate/drank Shadowmelded, until after the patch came out and Shadowmeld always cancelled my drinking. So since it's nerfed my Shadowmeld drinking I have to learn to take advantage of new ways it can be used.

Getting used to using the new Shadowmeld in combat has been a bit slow for me, having a new utility ability is very cool, but sometimes I just forget to take advantage of it.

So reading various forums, someone mentioned they could make 500g an hour AoE farming the Blood Elves at the Ruins of Karabor, I didn't believe this, but I wanted to check it out anyway.

So I went their and started AoE farming with Starfall and Hurricanes to see what I could do. This is the first time I had been AoE farming, as previously this was not so efficient before the 3.0.2 patch. I found I could pull a lot of mobs, and just Hurricane them all down, with the mana recovery nerf I did have to spend some time drinking, but I was doing this more for curiousity sake then any belief I was gonna make a ton of gold out of it.

The posts I read, another Moonkin Druid said he could pull 8 mobs at a time, in semi decent PVP gear myself, I found I was pulling a lot more mobs than that and easily mowing them down, I'd get to 50% health or less and no mana, so I would have to drink back up again.

During one of my AoE's a Horde Pally rode by, I was wary, so I targeted him to see what he was doing, and sure enough, he started attacking me, he was probably undergeared, or a noob, (or possibly not ret, but what pally in their right mind wouldn't be ret right now!) because I didn't die in 3 hits and I had about 5-6 mobs still wacking on me.

As a typical reaction I Cycloned the Pally first then started to kite away with mobs on me, weighing up my options I remembered to Shadowmeld, and sure enough I lost the mobs aggro, the funny thing is, they started towards the Pally who was Cycloned. I'm not sure if it was because he was the only other player there, or if when he came at me he did an AoE attack that did some damage to them. Before the Pally came out of the Cyclone I started charging up a Starfire, of course this took me back out of Shadowmeld, but the mobs stayed on the Pally, my Starfire hit the Pally, and the mobs beat on him some more.

After killing the Pally, I did what all rightously vengeful farmers do, I went and hid in the corner and started drinking/eating to restore my HP and Mana, the Pally quickly rez'd and tried to gank me while I was having my meal, I ran and accidently aggroed some mobs, so with some NPC's and a Horde Pally chasing my ass I Shadowmelded again, and once again the mobs went straight for the Pally.

I thought Shadowmeld was meant to restore agro when you came out of it, so I'm not sure if this is a broken mechanic, or just the way it works when your farming solo, but it was definitely fun training mobs onto the Horde Pally.

Hunters and Rogues have probably enjoyed being able to do this since release, but for the rest of us Night Elves the fun is just beginning, I wonder if this will get nerfed.

Overall I spent about an hour at the Ruins of Karabor and probably made less than 30g, I got some gold, some trash, and a bunch of Sunfury Signets and a couple of Arcane Tomes, in the old days when Signets and Tomes were worth something this might have been a good farm spot, but now, well let's be honest, 30g an hour sux. Sure I probably spent half of that time playing with a Pally, but still 60g an hour sux.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Shadowmeld OP or not OP?

For many years, Night Elves have lauded shadowmeld as being the worst racial in the game. I admit, as a NE Druid I have drooled over having a Tauren warstomp, or an Undeads will of the forsaken or in recent times a Humans perception has been called OP (Over Powered) as Arena's popularity (and gear)increased.

But how bad was it? Thinking back at the multiple way's it's been used, shadowmeld was never THAT bad to begin with.

Hunter's (ab)used shadowmeld with aimed shot (you used to come out of shadowmeld when the spell was cast, now you come out of shadowmeld when you start casting the spell)

There was the get out of combat, drink and shadowmeld to hide while pvping.
This was especially popular with Night Elf Hunters that could drop out of combat anytime with , fall dead, eat/drink, shadowmeld.

Night Elves could hide at the start of Arena, some would sit in the starting area, while others would quickly run behind a pillar, or up on the bridge and meld, giving the appearance of 2 stealthers.

So admittedly, while shadowmeld was not as bad as Night Elves have complained about, many Night Elves definitely had race envy.

So what does the new shadowmeld do?

Shadowmeld (Racial)
Instant cast
Activate to slip into the shadows, reducing the chance for enemies to detect your presence. Lasts until cancelled or upon moving. Any threat is restored versus enemies still in combat upon cancellation of this effect.


And why are people complaining about it all of a sudden?

Well first let's compare the negatives about the new shadowmeld compared to the old one.

It no longer says it gives +1 level of stealth on the tooltip, so i will assume they took this out, although i've seen a few people comment that it still does (out of ignorance i guess)

Can no longer eat/drink then shadowmeld

2 minute CD

Ok, now for the positives

Can shadowmeld while in combat

Drops threat while melded


Although there are only 2 positives, they far outweigh the negatives, especially for us stealthers. As of patch 3.0.2 kitties can now eat then stealth! (rogues already knew they could do this)

Shadowmeld is like an additional vanish for rogues, taking them out of combat allowing them to stealth, and is like a vanish for druids.

If a Night Elf tank makes a bad pull, he can quickly meld to drop agro.

It lets Night Elf healers drop agro long enough for the tank to pick up the loose mob.

And for those Night Elves with instant broomstick mounts from Halloween, you can shadowmeld (drop combat) instant broomstick and get the hell out of their.

Pretty slick when most of us weren't expecting a racial change.

There are now a lot of people crying nerf! (seems like their is a lot of cry babies in this game) we'll see how Blizz handles it.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Starfall Nerfed against stealthers!

Well for the PVPers out there, most stealthers will rejoice (only the moonkins may cry) as Starfall has been nerfed.

WTH is Starfall some people may be asking?

Starfall is a 51 point talent in the druid balance tree.

Starfall
Instant cast
30 yd range 35% of base mana
You summon a flurry of stars from the sky on all targets within 30 yards of the caster, each doing X Arcane damage, and an additional Y Arcane damage to all nearby targets within 5 yards. Maximum 20 stars. Lasts 10 sec.

With talents some druids had extended the range of this spell to 36 yards.

Why was it so good?

Well in PVP, this spell hit stealthed characters, and arena being such a popular part of the game, it was very easy for a druid to stealth to the centre and pop starfall. Arena's being so small, you were bound to pull stealthers out of stealth, and vanish wouldn't help as the effect lasted 10 seconds and could easily pull them back out of stealth again.

A lot of crying went on in the WoW forums, and finally after the patch last Tuesday Starfall was stealth nerfed! (forgive the pun) i didn't read anything in the patch notes about the changes to starfall, but various people have posted about the change.

I guess this is as official as it gets with a blue response

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12368278145&sid=1

So it can still possiblly get a druid or rogue out of stealth if they're standing next to a non stealthed character, but overall, a lot of people are saying starfall is absolute trash now.

Here's a link to the QQ posts on starfall, before and after

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12065154945&sid=1&pageNo=1