Nerd Culture Podcast

Conviction’s original purpose was to create a cycle of healing, dealing, and preventing damage. This cycle continues and flourishes in 5.2, so long as the Priest has a good amount of Spirit, Mastery, and Crit %.

Click here to see the spec on WoWHead

Thankfully, with the new talents there have been some new great additions to this spec. For example, Void Tendrils can remove some melee enemies from you for a few precious seconds, and while using the Holy Fire/Smite combo with Glyph of Smite (which increases Smite damage during the Holy Fire DoT effect), the Void Tendrils are healed from damage dealt due to Atonement! Also, Divine Star is a great way to deal and heal damage, as whenever it critically heals, it creates an absorption shield on those that were in its path. Also, Penance has a new added effect of giving you a cast of your Shield even if you are under the effect of Weakened Soul, along with Smite casts having a 15% chance for a free and instant Flash Heal.

Also, Atonement will still be your best friend, healing or possibly even giving you a damage prevention shield while you deal damage to your enemies. Train of Thought will also help you to throw more damage around, using Smite to reduce the cool down of Penance.

AoE can have some tense moments with this spec, but there are several spells that will help in such situations. Void Tendrils will help to keep their distance from you, and Psychic Scream will help as well once they break the roots (if they even get that chance due to the healing from Atonement). Power Word: Shield should be kept up as much as possible to help keep you healthy. If things start to get really hairy, then Pain Suppression will alleviate a good amount of the damage. Plus, as stated above, Smite will be allowing the use of free and instant Flash Heals, which also brings up Divine Aegis which creates a free shield when there is a critical hit. And Angelic Bulwark gives a player an absorption shield if they are reduced below 30% of their life for those just in case emergencies.

As for the Major Glyphs of Power Word: Shield and Reflective Shield, these help the cycle of healing, damage and prevention as well. Power Word: Shield converts 20% of the shield into a heal, so as to make sure that your health is further kept up, but be sure if possible to make use of that heal or its wasted (unless its a critical heal that procs Divine Aegis). Reflective Shield forces those that would do you harm to feel some of their own damage. All in all, this spec is very similar to where it was, but I feel it has more utility due to the addition of Void Tendrils and Divine Star, which have helped my Priest in numerous occasions and made this a very powerful spec.

As promised, here is another patch 5.2 revised spec, this time it’s the new version of my Assassination Rogue spec Face Ripper!

This spec was created to kill Horde foes left and right, and a special thanks to a post by Zendfrim, which suggested this spec.

Click here to see the Talent Spec on WoWHead

For this specialization, I recommend a high amount of Haste and Mastery, to allow dots to trigger and poisons to deal more damage. However, to make it viable for PvP, there needs to be more forms of utility and survivability.   Combat Readiness, Leeching Poison and Dirty Tricks will help you to keep onto your life as long as possible, while your utility comes from Nightstalker, Cloak and Dagger and Marked for Death.

The main thing to keep in mind for this spec, is to keep all of the DoTs you can on your opponent(s) at a time. This is also the reason for Dirty Tricks. Keeping your DoTs up will allow Venomous Wounds to constantly keep  more damage on your enemy and a decent flow of energy returning to you.  Also, Slice and Dice should be kept up for yourself, and if the enemy is highly armored, Glyph of Expose Armor is very handy.  Also, Marked for Death can give you an instant 5 combo points to be able to rake your foe over the coals.

As for enemy casters, Cloak and Dagger as well as Glyph of Garrote will be invaluable tools. This way, you can close in the space to get to them, and silence them as soon as possible, then lay into them with Mutilate.

As for the case of all enemies, Glyph of Debilitation will allow you to prevent an enemies escape, allowing you to continue stabbing them with your daggers to your heart’s content!

Hi WoW Yoda fans!

I apologize for not having any more specs since December 1st, but I was waiting for the new 5.2 patch to come out in order to fully revise all previous specs and begin creating more. To that end, I start anew with the Paladin spec – Holy Slam; for the casting class lovers that want a Pally that isn’t Ret or Prot spec.

Click here to see the talent spec on WoWHead

Surprisingly, not too much has changed on how this spec works, and in fact, its damage output is highly increased due to this patch. Sadly, Inquisition is no longer available to Holy spec, which does make sense since it isn’t supposed to be doing damage anyway, however Glyph of Harsh Words makes up for this in allowing a nice damage ability. This time, the main offensive spells will be Denounce, Holy Shock, Judgement, and Word of Glory. I recommend Seal of Truth still, due to Judgement causing the Censure effect. As for rotation, Denounce will be your baseline spell, casting whenever your others aren’t available, Holy Shock will give you the holy power necessary to cast your Word of Glory, then the talent Divine Purpose will give you a 25% chance to cast another time, and can actually proc on itself constantly. Glyph of Holy Shock will also allow you to deal more damage with your Holy Shock, while Glyph of Denounce gives the Holy Shock a chance to make your next Denounce to cast more quickly.

As for protecting yourself, Selfless Healer allows your Judgements to allow your Flash of Light to cost less, take less time to cast and heal for  damage time. However, if you can wait for your third Judgement, then your Flash of Light will be free, instant, and empowered. Also, Unbreakable Spirit will allow a more frequent use of your bubbles and Lay on Hands.  Then for the necessary movement for PvE or PvP, Pursuit of Justice will have you covered, especially if you have 3 holy power to move 30% faster.  Also, you can easily build up long lasting holy power by casting Holy Shock while not in combat.

One thing to be sure of, when starting combat with a single melee opponent, be sure to cast your Denounce first, followed by Judgement (to allow Burden of Guilt to slow them down) and then Holy Shock. For ranged opponents, it can be the other way around so you will build your holy power faster.  Sadly, this spec doesn’t have much in the way of AoE, so Holy Prism will cover for you. The one main thing to remember, is that you will need to target yourself first, so that your enemies will be burned. Also, your heals will give you a protective shield due to Mastery, so whenever you self heal, you will be protected, especially whenever Lay on Hands is cast.

I hope you enjoy the newly revised Holy Slam. Check back tomorrow for another revised WoW Yoda spec!

Hail Storm is designed to keep your enemies in the cold, while you shatter them into tiny pieces with barrages of ice and frost. The main purpose for this spec is to keep enemies frozen or chilled at all times to allow for better targeting, damage, and survivability.

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#my\N|kmozR0

This Frost spec should have an easier time with adds and group pulls due to the total of 3 Frost Nova types of attacks, being Frost Nova, Ice Ward, and your Elemental’s Freeze spell. With these, it is far easier to single out a large mob from a group, or hitting them all with Blizzard, Cone of Cold, and/or Frozen Orb.

As for the damage aspect, all of these freezing abilities allow for the use of a more powerful version of Ice Lance (4x normal damage) or Deep Freeze (5 sec stun). Also, due to Fingers of Frost (passive) your Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt, Blizzard, and Frozen Orb all have a chance to make your next Ice Lance or Deep Freeze act as though your enemy was frozen. Invocation will also keep damage up by 25% so long as its used every 40 seconds, easily enough time to dispatch of your foes.

Survivability will be increased not only due to the fact that you are slowing or rooting your enemies, but also due to Ice Barrier and Presence of Mind. The reason why I included Presence of Mind is due to the face that it allows for a split second reaction for a just in case situation. One such situation for me was a point when I had a few adds on me in the Jade Forest, I used Presence of Mind to cast my Frost Bomb on a mob. Yes, it may have only a 1.5 sec cast time, however, when you are near death from having fought several enemies and was interrupted by the current mob from replenishing HP and MP, an instant cast for a few second to an explosion that slows enemies is very handy. Especially when it’s followed by an Ice Barrier then Frost Nova and AoE damage galore!

GLYPHS
For Major Glyphs, I chose 2 for damage, and 1 for utility. Cone of Cold and Ice Lance increases the damage of 2 of the main 2 instant cast damage spells that will be used with Frost spec. Frost Nova is a keystone for this spec, so a reduced cool down time is very beneficial. For Minor Glyphs, Momentum is great for gaining more distance from frozen enemies, so long as you make sure there are no enemies in the area you are going. Loose Mana is not a requirement for this spec, but there may be some moments where gaining mana a little slower could be useful, especially since having Invocation, which reduced mana regeneration by 50%.

ROTATION
Try to make sure Ice Barrier stays up at all times along with your Invocation bonus (if you are level 90 that is). Your go to spell will always be Frostbolt. It places up to 3 stacks of vulnerability for a total of 15% to a few of your main spells, and that of your Water Elemental as well.  After you have your stacks, or if you feel your enemy is too close, feel free to use Freeze from your Elemental, or go for Frost Nova. I recommend keeping Ice Ward for just in case situations. Then when they are covered in ice, you can go for a Deep Freeze, or If that’s on cool down, go straight for a barrage of Ice Lance and Cone of Cold. Also, be sure to use Ice Lance whenever you have a proc from your Fingers of Frost (or Deep Freeze if necessary). As for groups, be sure to put in a Frost Bomb as early as possible. Then try to get the group of enemies clustered together, so you can freeze them with one of your 3 options from above, then Blink and us Frozen Orb and Blizzard.

Welcome to a special audio WoW Yoda!

This was originally recorded for inclusion in our last podcast but cut for length. But I didn’t want it to be lost forever so I am posting it here for you all to enjoy.

So for all you WoW Yoda fans, here is the man himself! (well his voice at least :))

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Running Time: 24 mins