Nerd Culture Podcast

Welcome to my latest Wow Yoda spec – Tooth and Nail. This is a Beast Master Hunter spec and is designed around the purpose of you helping your pet to help you.

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#cfhcfkGzRRobZcbh:ozcczd0Mz

The perfect 2 talents to explain this, are Frenzy and Focus fire.  Your pet is constantly gaining its Frenzy effect, until the point where you can unleash your Focus Fire, gaining a lot of benefits to yourself.  Mixing this in with Longevity, to decrease your pets, and your, cool downs to make you both more lethal is a huge bonus as well.  Also, with Invigoration and Go for the Throat, any time you critically hit with auto attacks, your pet gains Focus, and any time your pet critically hits, you gain 6 Focus.  Now, I know that a lot of people say that Killing Streak is a necessary talent, however I have a lot of reasons why I don’t take this.  The main, and most important reason, is because most mobs you kill only need 2 Kill Command attacks to kill, so if both critically hit, the 3rd is generally wasted.  Also, for PvP, the enemy usually gets to be too far away for you to use this, due to the fact that it has a 10 sec timer on it, and Kill Command has a 6-8 sec cooldown so really only a 2-4 sec window to use this talent, that requires 2 talent points.  So not worth it.

Since this spec gets messed up if your pet dies, you have Spirit Bond, Improved Mend Pet, and Glyph of Mending to make sure to keep your pet alive and well.  Also, remember your Master’s Call and Bestial Wrath in case somebody attempts to crowd control you or your pet.  If you want some higher survivability, then I recommend removing Pathing and Improved Kill Command, to take Hunter vs. Wild, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Chimera.  This may reduce some of the damage you deal, but will HIGHLY increase your chance of surviving for PvP, and for groups of enemies.

One thing that I enjoy doing with this spec, is waiting for my Focus Fire to be ready to use, then I follow that up with Rapid Fire and Bestial Wrath, to deliver quick and massive blows with my gun (since I use a dwarf, I like the extra 1% extra critical hit chance with them) and can usually get to approximately a 1.5 sec speed or less 🙂

PETS

In PvP I usually use my Chimera (named Thunderfrost).  It keeps my enemies slowed down so I can just keep shooting at them.  For PvE I use my Worm (named Cupcake) due to its ability to increase enemy physical damage taken and is also a very effective tank.  I do however have a Devilsaur (Tyrant) that I use occasionally, as well as a Rhino (Mittens) in case I know I am with some people that do bleed damage, or that I need some knock back.

All in all, this spec has all that you need to fight with your companion against any opponent.

Here is my latest killer WoW spec – Lightning Storm!

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#hGhGGRbkdhobhMZb:orzoqR0mM

This Elemental Shaman spec is designed to shock your enemy into submission with the power of nature.  Your predominant spells are going to be Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Frost Shock, Earth Shock, and Thunderstorm.  The main reason why I did not say Flame shock and Lava Burst, is due to the fact that this spec is mainly going to go for Fulmination, and if you stack enough mastery and/or haste, you will get the Fulmination effect VERY frequently, which is good for massive damage.

Also this spec has a lot of survivability to it as well.  It has all magic damage reduced by 12% by Elemental Warding and 10% less damage while casting with Ancestral Resolve.  You will also want to use your Thunderstorm and Frost Shock to keep enemies off of your back, while you blast away at them.  Earthquake and a well placed Earthbind Totem can also help with keeping enemies away from you. I would normally say that the Flametongue Weapon  is the best choice, but recently, I’ve found that Frost Brand seems to do better, in conjunction with Unleash Elements, forcing your enemy to a VERY slow crawl.

Also, the totems i generally will use are Stoneskin, Flametongue, Mana Spring and Wrath of Air.  There are situations of course where you will need Earthbind or Tremor to help take enemies off of you, or to use some of the fiery damage totems, but i usually prefer to just stick with Flametongue, since it can help with healing too, as well as the very favored, Grounding for PvP.

The main rotation would be to use your Lightning bolt on your enemy, followed by Frost shock, then continue with Lightning bolt when they get close, pop them with your Thunderstorm, and another frost shock.  If you have your Fulmination ready, then use Earth Shock.  If you have a group on you, then you can use Chain Lightning instead of Lightning bolt, and continue casting till they get to you.  Then, when they are close, Earthbind totem, while running back, then continue with Chain Lightning, until they are close again, in which you can use Thunderstorm, and just pelt them from afar even more!  Using this spec, if you can keep your mastery or haste high enough, your Lightning Storm will tear your enemies asunder!

Welcome to my next WoW spec, this time focusing on the Mage.

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#oGcrMRMRrRoofZcb:s0VMzbVmo

The Power Within is designed to take down your enemy as quickly and efficiently as possible.  Your Arcane Blast is the most useful spell at your repertoire, while your Arcane Missiles and Barrage will be your strongest.  A lot of utility and trickiness also exists in the spec.  For example, if you use Frost Nova or Ring of Frost, your chance to cause critical hits increases by 3 times the normal amount.  Also, all of your spell critical hits will refund 30% of the mana due to Master of Elements.  Also, Improved Polymorph will allow for a very interesting purpose.  Torment the Weak will increase your damage for 3 seconds after the 1st hit.
There are also numerous ways to increase your own damage further, such as Incanter’s Absorbtion, Invocation, and several more such talents.  To further your damage, you can use Mage Armor to keep you mana as full as possible, especially with the glyph.

The spell rotation I would recommend, is to use Arcane Blast until you have 4 stacks of damage increase buffs.  At this time, if Arcane Missiles is not yet ready, then use Arcane Barrage.  You will want to make sure to keep Mana shield up, if you know damage will be coming your way soon, so that way you can gain your Absorption as soon as possible.  These Arcane Tactics (haha, sorry, couldn’t help that) will show your enemy your true power within.  (Couldn’t help that one either!)

Welcome to my latest WoW spec, this time focusing on the bastion of fury, the Warrior!

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#LGbfcRMRuMkhbZcb:RcM0Racz0

This spec is all about spilling your enemy’s blood while keeping yourself alive and well.  There is plenty of self healing in this spec as well as a good amount of damage to be dealt, by dot and burst.  With Lambs to the Slaughter, you will keep a high amount of damage on your main abilities, which are Slam and Mortal Strike.  Also, if several enemies get the drop on you, Sweeping Strikes and Deadly Calm will be your best friends, allowing you to hit several enemies at a zero rage cost.  Also, if you are level enough, throw in your Bladestorm to become a whirling death zone… or for my personal favorite, a gnome, a little blender of death!  Also, Blood Frenzy will be very handy to increase all bleed damage from your Rend and Impale, and your Blood and Thunder will spread it to nearby enemies.

To help keep you alive, Blood Craze, Toughness, and Second Wind will be your friends.  Also, the glyph for your Victory Rush will also restore hit points.  If you feel that you have too many enemies on you, feel free to use Throwdown to decrease the pressure on you.  Also, due to the talent Taste for Blood, you will want to keep the Rend effect on as many enemies as possible and allow the frequent use of Overpower.  Sure it has an internal cooldown of 5 seconds, but the more enemies you have Rend on, the more likely it is to proc that 5 seconds.  And, the great part about this spec is that you really only need to have Battle Stance active (no Stance Dance!).

I have used this spec for leveling my now lvl 85 Warrior, and after defeating almost EVERY enemy, I left with 100% of my hit points.  In the case that I didn’t have full hit points, I would after hit the next enemy with Victory Rush and be right back to full.  By the use of this spec, you can spill your enemy’s blood with ease, while keeping onto your own right where it belongs!

I call this spec “Unholy Embrace (OE)”. I put in the OE in to show that it is open ended, and is flexible for the player.

The point of this spec is to get the disease on your enemies, and then embrace them with the Blight talent. This spec is used for constantly firing off Death Coil as much as possible to get your zombie minion to be mutated into the monstrosity as much as possible. One way to be cheap in doing this, if need be, is to target your minion and use your Death Coil on it, since your Glyph will reduce the cost if used to heal. Also, if you are targeted by spells, your Anti-Magic Shell will reduce the damage to nothing, and allow for a lot more Death Coils.

As for the remaining 4 points. If you are PVPing, Death’s Advance and Desecration are very good ideas. For PVE, Unholy Command and Butchery are wise moves to keep the slaughter going strong. For instances, Improved Unholy Armor may be a good move to increase your DPS from both attacks and diseases, as well more likely chances of Sudden Doom procs.

click here to see the Unholy Embrace spec @ wowhead.com

ROTATION

After you have gotten all of your diseases on the target it will be vital to change all of your Blood and Frost Runes to Death Runes using Festering Strike. Then, when you have all of your Death and Unholy Runes ready, let loose 6 of your Scourge Strikes followed by a barrage of Death Coils. Or you can also just let loose your Death Coils whenever you have the runic power available to do so. Also, you will want to increase your Mastery and Critical chance to really dish out the destructive power of your Unholy Embrace!