Nerd Culture Podcast

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).

Affliction has changed a lot since the new talents have been brought to light, however, that doesn’t mean that this spec is dead in the water. In fact, I feel that it has actually been created to better fit what it was supposed to achieve (minus the whole Shadow Bolt part, which was important, but I’ll explain why this spec is better off below).

Click here to see the spec on WoWHead!

Shadow of a Doubt’s main purpose was, “the dismal chance of hope that you(r) opponent(s) will have to defeat you” which this new version excels with. Instead of just casting Corruption or Soulburn > Seed of Corruption, there is a spell combo to play around with. Soulburn > Soul Swap now places Unstable Affliction, Corruption, and Agony on your target at the same time. Yes, this does require a Soul Stone (which you generally will start with 4 of) to complete, but that is 4 targets that you automatically have beginning with 3 of your 4 available afflictions. You may be wondering what the 4th one is right now…it’s Seed of Corruption! This AoE ability is now able to be cast on a target that has Corruption on them, w/o removing it from them. Also, you aren’t restricted from having only 1 Seed of Corruption at a time. This means, that if you have 4 targets at any given moment, you can have Unstable Affliction, Corruption, Agony, and Seed of Corruption on all of them at all times (which would sadly require a good amount of time and targeting to do, but it can be done).

So, instead of the old “Haunt > Shadowbolt > Unstable Affliction > Corruption > Bane of Agony” the new rotation becomes:

Haunt> Soulburn> Soul Swap > Malefic Grasp> (if enemy has >20% hp) Malefic Grasp)/(if enemy has <20% hp) Drain Soul

The reason for that, is because while an enemy has less than 20% of their total hit points, Drain Soul deals itself and your other afflictions deal 100% more damage, whereas Malefic Grasp always only deals its damage and your afflictions deal an extra 50% more (at the time of when Malefic Grasp deals its damage not just the affliction’s own proc)

So, now that we have mentioned how Affliction’s new spells function, lets go over the spec and its abilities!

The main thing to remember is the difference for taking on a single enemy, or multiples. For a single, you want to use the new rotation mentioned above. As for taking down several enemies, you will want to make sure that they all have been a victim of your Soulburn/Soul Swap combo.  After this, choose the 1st enemy that you targeted, and begin your Malefic Grasp spell on that target. When the enemy gets low enough, you can use Drain Soul. When that enemy dies, your Glyph of Soul Consumption will restore 20% of your life, and replenish ALL of your Soul Stones. With that 1st enemy down, you can now re-apply (if need be) all of your dots on enemies 2-4 or, you can go find 4 more enemies to begin dots on them, followed by Drain Soul on enemies 2-4 to again, regain lost life and Soul Stones.

Of course, knowing me, there has to be some elements of survivability. These of course are Soul Leech, to give the warlock a protective shield after casting certain spells. Soul Link will make your pet share the damage (and life gaining to keep your pet at full health w/o having to use Health Funnel). Also, Siphon Life will make your Corruption spell ticks keep a constant flow of health come to the warlock. However, if you start biting more than you can chew, or if you have too many adds, there are a few abilities that will help you to survive. Howl of Terror should be your main go to spell for removing excess enemies. Not only will it keep the damage on your foes, but the more you get hit afterward, the more quickly you can use it a second time, plus it’s an instant cast making it very useful. Burning Rush and Kil’jaeden’s Cunning will allow the Warlock to move around during casting at a a more suitable speed. Burning Rush has been handy for me to get out of a large area of effect attack while sustaining less damage than I would have if I had stayed and taken the hit.

Glyph of Unstable Affliction is only there for 1 reason, which is because there is a chance that during a Soulburn/Soul Swap combo 1 or more of the afflictions may not be applied, being counted as a miss, even if Soul Swap actually hit. So, for this, Agony and Corruption are instant casts which is no problem, but Unstable Affliction takes some time to cast, so any reduction is a good thing. I am not sure if there is a chance for 1 of the afflictions to miss if hit chance is 100% (I would hope not) so if that is the case, at 100% chance to hit, I would recommend Glyph of Health Stone instead. The extra health will be very handy even if it is over 10 seconds. This part is ok since Healthstone has a 2 minute cool down anyway, may as well gain more from it over a few seconds of time.

This was the 1st spec i had created that was open ended (OE) and I am intending on keeping it this way, since it gives a little more flexibility for the player. This is an Unholy Death Knight spec.

Click to see spec on WoWHead

The main point of this spec was and still is to keep your diseases on your enemies at all times, which Unholy Blight does a great job of. This will also allow the Death Knight more runes to use Festering Strike (to change frost and blood runes into death runes) while using your 2 Unholy runes into Scourge Strike (which is one of your primary damage ability). While your runes are recharging, Death Coil (which is also one of your other primary damage abilities) will be your attack of choice. Not only will this deal some decent damage, but it will also power up your Ghoul minion. For times in which you need more damage to be thrown around, Glyph of Unholy Frenzy will allow you to use Unholy Frenzy without worry of taking more damage. Also, ensure you are using Unholy Presence.

As for survivability, there are several abilities in this spec to help when the Death Knights own demise seems inevitable. Thankfully, once you have built up all of your death runes, this spec can use 4 consecutive Death Siphons. To follow that, you can target yourself and cast Lichborne (I recommend making a macro to do that for you)

/target (your characters name without the parenthesis)
/cast Lichborne 

Then proceed to cast Death Coil on yourself until you have enough health, or have run out of runic power (and these still increase your Ghoul’s power and add up to be able to cast Dark Transformation). Also, every time you cast your Death Coil, Runic Corruption has a 45% chance to proc, allowing your Runes to be ready sooner (possibly some as Death runes, if you have just used Festering Strikes). Remorseless Winter is also useful if you need to back away from a few enemies or be able to stop them dead in their tracks for a few seconds for a little breathing room. Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell will stop enemy caster from hitting you, and will also supply you with more needed runic power to cast more Death Coils. Also, if you want a faster way to develop your Dark Transformation, you can have your ghoul go to the fray first, using spare rune power to heal your pet for only 20 (instead of 40 due to Glyph of Death’s Embrace) which will get you 5 stacks of Shadow Infusion with only 100 runic power instead of 200.

As for the Open Ended (OE) part of this spec, I have left the choices of Death’s Advance, Chilblains, and Asphyxiate, as well as 1 major Glyph. I like Asphyxiate, but the times when they other 2 are usable, they really shine in their niches. As for the Major Glyph opening, there are several good choices. Outbreak may not be too great of a choice, due to this spec needing to use its Death Coil. However, Death Coil can help protect your friends, while Pestilence could be of use while your Unholy Blight is on cool down. Death Grip is good for giving a better range, but if you are soloing, then Unholy Command is a better choice.

Keep a high Mastery (to increase shadow damage) and Critical Strike chance (also for damage) to allow your strikes to keep as much power as possible. This way, your Scourge Strikes and Death Coils are always dealing as much damage as possible. Also, make sure you keep an eye on how long your diseases have left on them, since it’s better to use a Festering Strike than to need to re apply your diseases.

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.