The next WoW patch, 5.4, has been given the title Siege of Orgrimmar and will finally give players the chance to curbstomp the insane Garrosh Hellscream.
Check it out!
Another updated spec, this time it’s for Arms Warriors, allowing the blood to flow out of their enemies’ veins while keeping their own. The one thing that the Arms Warrior has to be sure of is to have a good 2 handed weapon with them at all times. This is how they deal most of their damage via Seasoned Soldier, gaining 25% increased damage. Thankfully, 5.2 has made things a bit easier with this spec, removing Rend and tying it into Mortal Strike, and allowing Mortal Strike to grant the warrior 2 uses of their signature ability, Overpower. Also, due to the new version of Blood and Thunder (which used to be a talent requiring 3 points for this spec), Thunder Clap not only reduces physical damage dealt by enemies, but also applies Deep Wounds. Victory Rush is still your main go to ability for whenever you are low on health, however there are a few changes for the better for this spec.
Click here to see the spec on WoWhead!
One example is that I actually used to stay away from Execute. The reason was because it cost all of your rage when previously my Overpower would do approximately the same amount of damage to my enemies, due to the cutoff of 30 rage. However, Sudden Death brings new life to this skill, since both Mortal Strike is free to cast, and grants 2 Overpowers, and if an Execute is used before the Overpowers, then the Overpowers will both also be free to cast, as well as any others within a 10 sec duration (which from counting Mortal Strikes alone can be a total of 4 Overpowers due to the 6 second cool down). Blood Spiller also has a wonderful new ability granted at level 90, aptly named for the spec, Bloodbath. Every minute this ability can be triggered to give all of your attacks the effect of dealing an additional 30% more damage as a bleed effect over 6 seconds. So, what I have done for fun, against groups of 5+ enemies, is to use Thunderclap, reducing their damage and causing a bleed, followed by Bloodbath, Sweeping Strikes, and lastly Bladestorm. This combo will tear all foes around you to pieces in a matter of moments. Plus, anything that doesn’t die is easily killed afterward, considering that with the Glyph of Sweeping Strikes you gain 1 rage for each enemy that was hit.
As for keeping the Warrior healthy, a few new additions have been made here as well. Disrupting Shout, Warbringer, and Mass Spell Reflection have come to join the fray, allowing the warrior to prevent spell casting (although Warbringer has to be done from afar so this will more than likely be a PvP related caster delay, unless something was done to agro a far way opponent). Second Wind is still old reliable, and has gotten better due to healing 3% at all times while under 35% hit points. This ability now also generates 50% more rage than it used to pre-5.2. Also, while at higher levels, don’t forget about your Banner abilities, they can get you out of bad situations via giving the warrior additional crit chance, reducing enemy damage, or if in a party, then redirecting enemy attention to the Warrior (which I have used to actually prevent a wipe to protect a Druid during a battle Rez from getting killed).
This spec is back in action and it has blood in its eyes (not necessarily its own!).
WoW has a pretty cool little time waster called the Battle Pet System. It is an obvious rip off of Pokemon but it apparently hasn’t pissed off Nintendo so all good.
At first I was dismissive of the whole thing. I mean it’s blatantly designed to enhance the already crack-like nature of the game and keep people playing and that annoyed me, and I was never into Pokemon anyway, but now I have a confession to make:
I’m kinda obsessed by Battle Pets.
Like all other aspects of the game, Battle Pets have their own selection of Achievements, and I long ago fell into the trap of seeking out more and more Achievements, so here were a brand new selection for me to obsess over.
They range from ‘Collect X number of Battle Pets‘, to ‘Win X PvP Battle Pet duels‘, and everything in between. I’m not really interested in the PvP ones but the collecting ones are right up my alley.
Most of the Pet collecting achievements are pretty easy, and simply involve capturing pets from scattered around Azeroth & Outland. But a few of the pets are ridiculous to find.
I only have 2 more pets to get to complete the achievement ‘Kalimdor Safari‘, which will in turn then complete the achievement ‘World Safari‘ and grant me the title Zookeeper. But these 2 pets are proving very elusive.
One is the Qiraji Guardling, which only comes out during the Midsummer Fire Festival, which is a week away, so not too bad there, but the other is the infamous Minfernal. My God catching this pet is pissing me off.
It only spawns in one little area in Felwood, and with no discernible pattern that I have been able to figure out. I currently have 4 toons, on 4 different servers, parked over the area and switch between them hoping that one has spawned. And I’m not alone in that plan either, there is always someone else hovering over the are when I appear, adding to the frustration.
I’ve even made the almost blasphemous decision that if I see one on the AH I will just buy the damn thing, regardless of cost. I’ve avoided buying any so far but for this one screw principles! And I usually try to avoid collecting Poor quality pets (they range from poor to rare) but if the Minfernal is Poor quality I don’t give a crap, I’ll take it!
My favourite pet collecting experience is actually getting the Tiny Shale Spider. It drops from a rarespawn elemental spider called Jadefang, which lives on a ledge in a cave in Deepholm. I camped this ledge for days and on the night of the weekly reset it finally spawned – with only 2 minutes to go! I almost had a heart attack as I furiously killed Jadefang, looted the pet, added it to my collection, and logged out, all before the auto reset 🙂
I suspect I’ll have a similar experience if the Minfernal ever appears. It probably isn’t good for my health, but it’ll be exciting enough to make up for the incredibly annoying hunt!
17/6/13 – UPDATE – I found a Minfernal!!! Oh the feeling LOL. I thought I’d have a quick check when Crystal called that dinner was ready, just for the hell of it, and holy crap there it was! It was uncommon but I’m happy with that. As I posted above, I had 3 other toons in position over Felwood, so I decided I didn’t need them there anymore and logged onto each one to send them home. And lo and behold, there was another Minfernal! I could not believe it! I swooped down hoping for a rare, but is was a poor, so I cancelled the battle and left it alone so that someone else could grab it. My good deed for the day 🙂
This will come as no surprise to listeners of NCP, but I’m kinda addicted to World of Warcraft.
I say kinda, because I don’t play though the night knowing I have to get up for work the next morning, or pee into a bottle that sits beside my desk because I don’t want to miss out on the dungeon finder popping, or get anxious if I don’t play for a few days, but this wasn’t always the case. Yes, I admit I’ve had 24 hour marathon play sessions, made use of an empty bottle on at least one occasion, and had trouble concentrating the next day if I finished playing the night before and my toon (character) was only 1 or 2 bars away from leveling, but that was in my earlier WoW days. Being married to a non-WoW player means that I have the joy of being able to spend time with her, so WoW has been relegated to a weekend only, and no weeknights situation and that’s more than ok with me. And besides, I’m an old man now and I need my sleep!
That doesn’t mean that I’m no longer a loyal player. Whenever other obligations don’t interfere, I am at my PC traveling the world of Azeroth, and happy as a pig in mud. Other games may temporally distract me (like SWToR) but I always come home to WoW.
So to that end I thought I might occasionally post some thoughts here about my highs and lows of playing the world’s most popular MMORPG, and even write down the sometimes ridiculously detailed character biographies I have for my toons. I know, bloody RP’ers… 🙂
I can’t guarantee it will be a regular thing, but they’ll be up every now and then. I might even be able to coax our resident WoW Yoda to post a story of two.
And, if you have a WoW experience, or character bio you want to share please feel free to post it in the Comments section. I would very much like to read them!
David
Here is another talent spec that was original inspired by a suggestion from WoW Yoda fan, Zendfrim, for the purpose of Healing in a PvP environment. If you would like to request a certain type of spec for a class, I’m always open, just let me know what class, and what you want it to do!
Click here to see the spec on WoWHead!
Natural Selection is able to heal and if need be, deal some damage while staying alive long enough to have your allies cheer for you afterward. In order to complete this, high amounts of combat mobility is a prerequisite. Wild Charge more than completes this goal, in the fact that you can fly to an allies location, charge at an enemy, or leap behind your foe. With all of the heal over time spells that are instant cast, mobility is further enhanced, but if those weren’t enough, Nature’s Swiftness was included to allow several heals (which will be empowered), and a few utility spells to be used instantly. Couple that with an instant Swift Mend to make your next spell take 75% less time to cast thanks to your Soul of the Forest. Also, another instant to keep foes off of your back will be Mass Entanglement as well as Glyph of Prowl. For any one on one situations (which you will mostly likely have to wait out until a friend comes along, or use the previously mentioned abilities to get to a friend faster) Mighty Bash will give you a few precious seconds to either heal up or get away.
Also, for just movement in general, the Glyphs of Stag, Aquatic Form and Grace are added for getting around in general, not just for yourself, but for an ally as well in the case of Glyph of the Stag.
As for assistance with your healing or damage, Nature’s Vigil is a real treat (if only it was there before!). This ability increases your damage and healing by 10% for 30 seconds. Not only that, but when you deal damage, 25% gets added as a heal to a nearby ally, or when you heal, 25% of the health gain will be dealt as damage (which is the important part). So, if you have all of your heal over time effects on a friend, you will be constantly be streaming damage to your enemy. Throw in a Moonfire on your enemy, and that will constantly put a small heal on your friend (or yourself). Also, don’t forget about Glyph of Rejuvenation and Healing Touch. These are great not only on their own, but work along with Nature’s Vigil as well to really help turn around any skirmish. Also, for any major situation, don’t forget Iron Bark and that your Mastery: Harmony will greatly increase your survivability as well as your friend’s (especially Harmony for the case of Nature’s Vigil).
