After my last post, I kept thinking about different gamepads. Logitech's G13 is consistently lauded as superior to the Nostromo/Belkin n52, and claims to support Apple products these days. Since I posted that the lull before the expansion was a good time to try something new, I thought I might follow my own advice and give the G13 a try. It will run you $70-80 US, so it's not cheap, but has a plethora of programmable options to expand your gameplay.
Why the Shattering in the title?
Try it and find out! Regardless if you've been using your traditional keyboard or something else, any time you change the layout of keys/buttons/etc, you'll find it takes some time to adjust.
Just like shooting free throws, a small change in biomechanics can take quite a while to adjust.
It may feel like everything you knew before, those effortless run-jump-spin-strike abilities, all of it is just gone. Just like our old Azeroth will be tomorrow.
My most vivid memory of this, strangely, comes from bowling, an activity I do less than once a year. When I was a child, my family went bowling with my uncle's family. My uncle bowled semi-professionally at the time. I was a kid, of course, and my parents had shown me the basics of bowling but I really didn't know what I was doing. I usually bowled about a 120-140. My uncle took one look at my 'form' and started correcting my walk up, my swing, everything. I tried doing what he told me to, and I was horrible! Of course, his corrections were, in fact, correct, and as I practiced them, I eventually got better.
So, over the weekend I messed around with the G13, trying some different key combinations and just trying to get used to it. It was actually very frustrating, because I didn't know where my abilities were! I felt like such a noob and had to force myself to find the keys on the gamepad rather than resorting to clicking with my mouse, but I did get to the point eventually where I could at least stand behind a dummy and feel comfortable. In fact, the biggest change made me the most comfortable dpsing. That is, I'm trying to use the little thumbstick to move around instead of using keys. If you can move with your thumb, it frees up 4 keys in the middle of the keypad that can then constitute some of your most-used attacks. It feels great Scourge Striking from the 'rest' position, instead of having to constantly move my hands up to the number row to do my attacks.
The keypad is very easy to program. At it's most basic, you can just click on any G-key and then hit a key on your regular keyboard and you're set. I just translated my keybindings from before to the G13 (for example, the G1 key is set to 'H', my Dark Transformation). For how to set up and run the G13 in Wow, Gravity at pwnwear.com has a couple of superb threads on the topic, so head over there and search for 'G13' if you're interested!
I'm feeling a bit Shattered, but if I can stick with it, I think in the long run I'll be very happy with the results.
On a side note, I'm excited for tomorrow, and the next few weeks!
Yes, there will be turkey in a few days, but I can't help but anticipate the case of Monsters I'll be imbibing as of December 7 just as much. :)
Showing posts with label Raiding gear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Raiding gear. Show all posts
Monday, November 22, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Is your gear ready for Cataclysm?
Every once in a while I look at the gear we use to play the game. I've talked a little in the past about headsets and mice, so I thought I'd talk a little more about the rest of the equipment we use.
Obviously, in general you need to have a computer capable of playing the game. Fortunately, the hardware demands aren't too intensive and it's fairly cheap to get a computer that will allow decent game play.
My old (5+ years) computer finally fizzled out about the time of the 4.0 patch, so it was time for a replacement. Desktops are obviously better in terms of price/performance, but I needed something I could take on the road when I travel for work or teaching. So, what kind of laptop is needed? The good news is that even relatively inexpensive laptops can run the game fairly well, but I'd advise investing in at least a moderately good graphics card. As a 'non-techie' person, I focused on pre-built models and was intruiged by Dell/Alienware's M11x, which I'm sure would have done the job. In the end, however, I went with Apple. I was a little nervous about the 13" Macbook Pro's ability to run the game, but I needn't have worried. It runs the game on good to excellent settings more than adequately, even in aoe-heavy 25-man raids.
Of course, peering at a small screen is rough on the 'ol eyes, so with a laptop, it's preferable to purchase a larger screen. Fortunately, even fairly large screens are fairly cheap these days and I went with a 28" monitor for my everyday gaming, as you can see above. Oooh, almost forgot: I was told to get HDMI when connecting the comp to the bigger monitor, but it resulted in a pretty crappy picture overall. DVI gave me a much better picture; your results may vary of course.
In the end, we're lucky that in the interests of accessibility, Blizzard has kept a balance between pretty graphics and pixel-punishing gameplay, allowing the everyday person to afford to play on moderately decent computers.
More important from my perspective is the choice of input devices. I've already discussed mice in the past. There are many options, but in general I'll just reiterate a point or two: you want one with little lag time, which almost always means a wired mouse. Second, more buttons on the mouse means less hunting for keys. Find what works for you. Razer's Naga ends up being too many buttons for me, but I know a lot of players, particularly healers, who love it. I like Logitech's products, but Razer's Mamba is my current favorite for comfort, performance, and button layout/feel.
Finally, the keyboard/keypad. There are a lot of options out there besides the 'vanilla' keyboard that came with your computer. Sure, you can 'asdf' your way through raids, and I'm sure that's exactly what most people do, but I think in the end, your performance can be signficantly improved by changing up the keyboard you use. As an Apple user, there are quite a few devices that won't work, sadly. So, there are a few that look promising, but I haven't had the opportunity to try. Regular gaming keyboards have the traditional qwerty layout with some added functions and snazzy looks. Those are fine, I guess. I've always wanted to try a Zboard. But what can really transform your gameplay is a keypad that makes reaching your important keys a lot easier in the long run. Pads like the Cyber Snipa or the classic Nostromo N52 look fantastic and get consistently positive reviews. I've attempted an older Nostromo and didn't like how hard the keys were to press, but I've heard the newer ones are better ergonomically. What you see on my desk is the Wolfking keyboard that utilizes a circular layout to make keys more accessible to your fingertips. Don't try typing with it though! I use the laptop's keyboard for typing text.
My main point in here is that we do want to have the best, most effective gear we can, and even though sometimes there is a little extra expense, if you can afford it, in the long run I think it's probably worth it.
Why now? Well, I'm posting in part because I just got the new comp, but also because now is an ideal time to try a new gear setup. It generally can take a solid 10-20 hours to get your brain rewired around a new keyboard/keypad setup and you'll want to be ready to go when Cataclysm comes out! Good luck, and happy shopping!
*(note, I'm not reviewing products, nor am I endorsing any in particular. I couldn't give two farts which ones you choose, nor am I being compensated in any way for anything in this article).
Obviously, in general you need to have a computer capable of playing the game. Fortunately, the hardware demands aren't too intensive and it's fairly cheap to get a computer that will allow decent game play.
My old (5+ years) computer finally fizzled out about the time of the 4.0 patch, so it was time for a replacement. Desktops are obviously better in terms of price/performance, but I needed something I could take on the road when I travel for work or teaching. So, what kind of laptop is needed? The good news is that even relatively inexpensive laptops can run the game fairly well, but I'd advise investing in at least a moderately good graphics card. As a 'non-techie' person, I focused on pre-built models and was intruiged by Dell/Alienware's M11x, which I'm sure would have done the job. In the end, however, I went with Apple. I was a little nervous about the 13" Macbook Pro's ability to run the game, but I needn't have worried. It runs the game on good to excellent settings more than adequately, even in aoe-heavy 25-man raids.
In the end, we're lucky that in the interests of accessibility, Blizzard has kept a balance between pretty graphics and pixel-punishing gameplay, allowing the everyday person to afford to play on moderately decent computers.
More important from my perspective is the choice of input devices. I've already discussed mice in the past. There are many options, but in general I'll just reiterate a point or two: you want one with little lag time, which almost always means a wired mouse. Second, more buttons on the mouse means less hunting for keys. Find what works for you. Razer's Naga ends up being too many buttons for me, but I know a lot of players, particularly healers, who love it. I like Logitech's products, but Razer's Mamba is my current favorite for comfort, performance, and button layout/feel.
Finally, the keyboard/keypad. There are a lot of options out there besides the 'vanilla' keyboard that came with your computer. Sure, you can 'asdf' your way through raids, and I'm sure that's exactly what most people do, but I think in the end, your performance can be signficantly improved by changing up the keyboard you use. As an Apple user, there are quite a few devices that won't work, sadly. So, there are a few that look promising, but I haven't had the opportunity to try. Regular gaming keyboards have the traditional qwerty layout with some added functions and snazzy looks. Those are fine, I guess. I've always wanted to try a Zboard. But what can really transform your gameplay is a keypad that makes reaching your important keys a lot easier in the long run. Pads like the Cyber Snipa or the classic Nostromo N52 look fantastic and get consistently positive reviews. I've attempted an older Nostromo and didn't like how hard the keys were to press, but I've heard the newer ones are better ergonomically. What you see on my desk is the Wolfking keyboard that utilizes a circular layout to make keys more accessible to your fingertips. Don't try typing with it though! I use the laptop's keyboard for typing text.
My main point in here is that we do want to have the best, most effective gear we can, and even though sometimes there is a little extra expense, if you can afford it, in the long run I think it's probably worth it.
Why now? Well, I'm posting in part because I just got the new comp, but also because now is an ideal time to try a new gear setup. It generally can take a solid 10-20 hours to get your brain rewired around a new keyboard/keypad setup and you'll want to be ready to go when Cataclysm comes out! Good luck, and happy shopping!
*(note, I'm not reviewing products, nor am I endorsing any in particular. I couldn't give two farts which ones you choose, nor am I being compensated in any way for anything in this article).
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Death Knight UI/addon 4.0 update
Over a year ago I wrote about the addons any good raiding dps DK needs. Wow, can't believe it was so long ago!
I've actually turned over more than half of my addons, so I thought I'd write a little about them now, realizing that at least some of these are likely to change as their authors may or may not update them for Cataclysm and we're likely to see some new shiny addons come out at that time as well.
I'll copy my format from that previous post and comment on any changes/updates here.
1. Raid Warnings/Events: Still absolutely essential for raiding, despite what some misguided snottydins might tell you. DBM (Deadly Boss Mods) is still the industry standard, but I've converted to BigWigs, as it is less memory-intensive. Both work very well for helping identify important events during a boss fight, and allow some customization of how you want to be alerted (BIG letters on screen? A sound? Both? you got it).
2. Proc Alerts: Blizzard's version is a very nice start, and quite a few bloggers have commented on how visually pleasing their HUD notifications are. As unholy so far, the Dark Transformation and Sudden Doom procs are very easy to identify by their visual alerts. So far, I'm not aware of the in-game system having a Runic Empowerment alert, which would be nice to know so that I could hold off on Death Coils for three seconds (unless runic power is capped and no runes are available). I haven't used Mik's Scrolling Battle Text for a long time: I used Power Auras for a while, but haven't loaded any proc alerts for 4.0 yet. If you prefer auditory alerts, one of these addons still might be best for you. I haven't tested Frost to see if their in-game proc alerts work as well - but I've seen screenies of Rime procs etc that look pretty good, so you might be able to rely on the default system for now, although a Runic Empowerment alert is even more important for Frost than Unholy.
3. Rune/Disease Watch: I'm still a 'thowback,' although I'm not using Rune Hero any more. It remains as important as ever for you to know which runes are ready to be used, which ones are almost off cooldown, and how much runic power you have. Even more importantly, you need to know how much time is left on diseases so you can ensure they don't fall off. The default Blizzard interface fails hugely here and it's very difficult to use their rune display effectively.
I like DKI Runes, and even though my health bar (when I'm being targetted) superimposes on it, it doesn't cause problems with the rune display and I prefer to have it front and center as you can see from the big screenie below.
You have many options - try a few out and see what you like best. DDR is the very popular choice on Elitist Jerks right now (Docs Debug Runes) but I'm not fond of it at all. DKI Runes has (as you can see) a sword-looking addon that is more compact and well-designed than my old fave Rune Hero, and has a nice disease watcher as well. I was a BIG fan of Acherus Runes, but it hasn't been updated and doesn't work for 4.0. One advantage of DDR over DKI is it has a nice obvious display of Shadow Infusion stacks (it may be possible to do for DKI as well, I just haven't discovered it yet).
4. Communication: Ventrilo is still the gold standard. It's the one 'addon' not available at Curse.com. (But download is free at several sites). The in-game voice comm is horrible and I don't know of any raiding guilds that use it.
5. Threat Meter: Threat meters are again relevant for 4.0 and I've noticed it's easier to pull a mob/boss than it was before. We don't have any passive threat reduction, and misdirect abilities have been nerfed. Good tanks still hold threat, but as a raider, you're responsible to watch your threat. Omen is by far the most popular threat meter, and the one I still use.
6. Damage Meter: I realize quite a few players/bloggers out there like to demonize meter-watchers, and rightly so in some cases. If you attempt to simply max dps without paying attention to fight mechanics or what your role might be, you're a bad player. But, when your primary role is to dps, why wouldn't you want feedback on how you're doing? As I've mentioned before, the meter gives you instant feedback that you're doing something right - or wrong. I can't tell you how many times I've noted a drop in my dps - and thanks to the meter - realize that after that last wipe I forgot to summon my ghoul, or after changing specs to pick a presence, and so on. Damage meters for bad players? NO. Bad players are bad players. Good players use damage meters. By the way, I've dropped the resource hog Recount and now use Skada. I still prefer the useability of Recount and may go back to it, but for now Skada is what I use.
7. Attack Power gauge: I was VERY pleased with Bleeding Hearts and had a separate post on it previously, but it seems to cause huge lag problems and sometimes seems the culprit in disconnects. It hasn't been updated in a long time and sadly I've had to delete it. Tiny Melee Stats still works but it's not my favorite. I'm still looking for a good option here. In any case, it's very helpful to see how much attack power you have to help with determining when to summon pets. Now that they also get our haste, it would be nice to have a haste indicator as well. I'd love to see a thermometer type gauge like Bleeding Hearts for both stats somewhere on my screen.
8. Others: For the most part, any other addons are for personal preference and won't contribute to your performance as a dps DK.
-MetaHud, one of my long-time favorites, is currently not working in 4.0. *sadface* The HUD you see in my screenie is IceHud, which is fairly similar and not too bad.
-Grid. You don't need this as a dps DK, but I do like to see who's alive during a fight, or be able to quickly find someone to target their target etc. It's essential for healers/raid leaders, not so much for dps DKs.
-OneBag. This addon broke for me, although I think it works for others. I'm now using Bagnon, which also has a feature that lets you see your bank and/or alt's bags/banks.
-Postal. Makes mailing and opening batches of mail much easier, as well as keeping lists of who you've mailed.
-Carbonite. Somewhat dated these days, so I'm not using it any more. Questhelper addons can still be useful, but the in-game map and tracker work quite well for me now.
-Gearscore. I actually used GS lite for a while, now I don't have either turned on.
-SpartanUI. As I posted more recently, the UI mod I use. It also requires Bartender but the download comes preset for SpartanUI. nUI is also very popular and even has a DK skin, but I've tried it and didn't like it. It's not bad - and is very similar in many ways, it's more a matter of preference. These addons preferably clean up space on your UI and are visually pleasing as well. You can make a case for these helping your raid performance by allowing you to be more aware of your surroundings and being able to find your target easier. I used the default UI for many years and it works just fine if that's your preference.
-Bloodhound. A very lightweight addon for helping gathering (which a dps DK IS NOT, but at the moment I'm mining until 85). There's better ones out there, I just don't need them.
-AutoProfitX. There's a dozen small addons that will dump grey items either automatically or put a button in the vendor tab. Nice to not have to click each one to sell individually.
-AuctionLite. I'm not enough of an Auction House mini-game player to get into Auctioneer. AL does what I need. I dont load it for my DK though - just my bank alts.
-Parsing sites: over the past year I've made multiple mentions and uses of these sites. Back on my original post, I was using WMO Online, which is still in operation, although I prefer World of Logs these days.
-Achievement Screenshotter: I had forgotten to add this one back in and was bummed when I looked for screenies from a couple of achievements my guild got over the past few days. It's back now, and screens from all sorts of random achievements will be dumped in my folders over the next few months.
And there you go - an update on addons that are useful for raiding dps DKs in late Lich King 4.0! (and a few that don't matter, but make life in Wow easier/better). Enjoy!
I've actually turned over more than half of my addons, so I thought I'd write a little about them now, realizing that at least some of these are likely to change as their authors may or may not update them for Cataclysm and we're likely to see some new shiny addons come out at that time as well.
I'll copy my format from that previous post and comment on any changes/updates here.
1. Raid Warnings/Events: Still absolutely essential for raiding, despite what some misguided snottydins might tell you. DBM (Deadly Boss Mods) is still the industry standard, but I've converted to BigWigs, as it is less memory-intensive. Both work very well for helping identify important events during a boss fight, and allow some customization of how you want to be alerted (BIG letters on screen? A sound? Both? you got it).
2. Proc Alerts: Blizzard's version is a very nice start, and quite a few bloggers have commented on how visually pleasing their HUD notifications are. As unholy so far, the Dark Transformation and Sudden Doom procs are very easy to identify by their visual alerts. So far, I'm not aware of the in-game system having a Runic Empowerment alert, which would be nice to know so that I could hold off on Death Coils for three seconds (unless runic power is capped and no runes are available). I haven't used Mik's Scrolling Battle Text for a long time: I used Power Auras for a while, but haven't loaded any proc alerts for 4.0 yet. If you prefer auditory alerts, one of these addons still might be best for you. I haven't tested Frost to see if their in-game proc alerts work as well - but I've seen screenies of Rime procs etc that look pretty good, so you might be able to rely on the default system for now, although a Runic Empowerment alert is even more important for Frost than Unholy.
3. Rune/Disease Watch: I'm still a 'thowback,' although I'm not using Rune Hero any more. It remains as important as ever for you to know which runes are ready to be used, which ones are almost off cooldown, and how much runic power you have. Even more importantly, you need to know how much time is left on diseases so you can ensure they don't fall off. The default Blizzard interface fails hugely here and it's very difficult to use their rune display effectively.
I like DKI Runes, and even though my health bar (when I'm being targetted) superimposes on it, it doesn't cause problems with the rune display and I prefer to have it front and center as you can see from the big screenie below.
You have many options - try a few out and see what you like best. DDR is the very popular choice on Elitist Jerks right now (Docs Debug Runes) but I'm not fond of it at all. DKI Runes has (as you can see) a sword-looking addon that is more compact and well-designed than my old fave Rune Hero, and has a nice disease watcher as well. I was a BIG fan of Acherus Runes, but it hasn't been updated and doesn't work for 4.0. One advantage of DDR over DKI is it has a nice obvious display of Shadow Infusion stacks (it may be possible to do for DKI as well, I just haven't discovered it yet).
4. Communication: Ventrilo is still the gold standard. It's the one 'addon' not available at Curse.com. (But download is free at several sites). The in-game voice comm is horrible and I don't know of any raiding guilds that use it.
5. Threat Meter: Threat meters are again relevant for 4.0 and I've noticed it's easier to pull a mob/boss than it was before. We don't have any passive threat reduction, and misdirect abilities have been nerfed. Good tanks still hold threat, but as a raider, you're responsible to watch your threat. Omen is by far the most popular threat meter, and the one I still use.
6. Damage Meter: I realize quite a few players/bloggers out there like to demonize meter-watchers, and rightly so in some cases. If you attempt to simply max dps without paying attention to fight mechanics or what your role might be, you're a bad player. But, when your primary role is to dps, why wouldn't you want feedback on how you're doing? As I've mentioned before, the meter gives you instant feedback that you're doing something right - or wrong. I can't tell you how many times I've noted a drop in my dps - and thanks to the meter - realize that after that last wipe I forgot to summon my ghoul, or after changing specs to pick a presence, and so on. Damage meters for bad players? NO. Bad players are bad players. Good players use damage meters. By the way, I've dropped the resource hog Recount and now use Skada. I still prefer the useability of Recount and may go back to it, but for now Skada is what I use.
7. Attack Power gauge: I was VERY pleased with Bleeding Hearts and had a separate post on it previously, but it seems to cause huge lag problems and sometimes seems the culprit in disconnects. It hasn't been updated in a long time and sadly I've had to delete it. Tiny Melee Stats still works but it's not my favorite. I'm still looking for a good option here. In any case, it's very helpful to see how much attack power you have to help with determining when to summon pets. Now that they also get our haste, it would be nice to have a haste indicator as well. I'd love to see a thermometer type gauge like Bleeding Hearts for both stats somewhere on my screen.
8. Others: For the most part, any other addons are for personal preference and won't contribute to your performance as a dps DK.
-MetaHud, one of my long-time favorites, is currently not working in 4.0. *sadface* The HUD you see in my screenie is IceHud, which is fairly similar and not too bad.
-Grid. You don't need this as a dps DK, but I do like to see who's alive during a fight, or be able to quickly find someone to target their target etc. It's essential for healers/raid leaders, not so much for dps DKs.
-OneBag. This addon broke for me, although I think it works for others. I'm now using Bagnon, which also has a feature that lets you see your bank and/or alt's bags/banks.
-Postal. Makes mailing and opening batches of mail much easier, as well as keeping lists of who you've mailed.
-Carbonite. Somewhat dated these days, so I'm not using it any more. Questhelper addons can still be useful, but the in-game map and tracker work quite well for me now.
-Gearscore. I actually used GS lite for a while, now I don't have either turned on.
-SpartanUI. As I posted more recently, the UI mod I use. It also requires Bartender but the download comes preset for SpartanUI. nUI is also very popular and even has a DK skin, but I've tried it and didn't like it. It's not bad - and is very similar in many ways, it's more a matter of preference. These addons preferably clean up space on your UI and are visually pleasing as well. You can make a case for these helping your raid performance by allowing you to be more aware of your surroundings and being able to find your target easier. I used the default UI for many years and it works just fine if that's your preference.
-Bloodhound. A very lightweight addon for helping gathering (which a dps DK IS NOT, but at the moment I'm mining until 85). There's better ones out there, I just don't need them.
-AutoProfitX. There's a dozen small addons that will dump grey items either automatically or put a button in the vendor tab. Nice to not have to click each one to sell individually.
-AuctionLite. I'm not enough of an Auction House mini-game player to get into Auctioneer. AL does what I need. I dont load it for my DK though - just my bank alts.
-Parsing sites: over the past year I've made multiple mentions and uses of these sites. Back on my original post, I was using WMO Online, which is still in operation, although I prefer World of Logs these days.
-Achievement Screenshotter: I had forgotten to add this one back in and was bummed when I looked for screenies from a couple of achievements my guild got over the past few days. It's back now, and screens from all sorts of random achievements will be dumped in my folders over the next few months.
And there you go - an update on addons that are useful for raiding dps DKs in late Lich King 4.0! (and a few that don't matter, but make life in Wow easier/better). Enjoy!
Friday, July 16, 2010
Best in Slot: Final Answer (ICC)
As most of you know, for the current level of content I've concluded that Unholy 2H is the best spec for dps DKs unless your raid doesn't have the haste buff.
As is the case with every tier, one looks at the 'new' stuff that's available and slobbers over the nice, bright shinies and hopes to accumulate as much of it as possible. Why? It's fun of course, and more importantly puzzing together the jigsaw puzzle of gear helps us do our job that much better.
At any rate, with things pretty well-settled in terms of stat valuation, I've settled on my 'ideal' gearset that I'm hoping to end up with now that I've obtained Shadowmourne.
As is the case with every tier, one looks at the 'new' stuff that's available and slobbers over the nice, bright shinies and hopes to accumulate as much of it as possible. Why? It's fun of course, and more importantly puzzing together the jigsaw puzzle of gear helps us do our job that much better.
At any rate, with things pretty well-settled in terms of stat valuation, I've settled on my 'ideal' gearset that I'm hoping to end up with now that I've obtained Shadowmourne.
For those not accustomed to the practice, I've assigned a value for each stat in terms of how much attack power it's worth (AEP) and then calculated the total value of each item. These values are based on simulators such as Kahorie's or Mr Robot. As you can see, in best in slot gear, haste is very good, second only to strength. With the Icewalker enchant on my boots, I can cap my hit (as a Draenei). For gem slots, I assigned a flat 60 AEP based on gemming for strength.
Strangely enough, the thing that immediately jumps out at me from this list is that it completely lacks expertise. Now, I'm usually a big advocate of capping stats like hit and expertise, but before you go getting all upset, here's the thinking. First, all the simulators I've used are currently rating expertise as a very poor stat, on par only with agility. I think this is mostly due to the fact that haste is so good. Haste scales extremely well, while expertise.... doesn't. Thus, if you can get enough haste on your gear or with gemming (around 250-300 rating seemst to be the break point), expertise becomes irrelevant. With enough haste, those dodges won't cripple your rotation. That is, as long as hit remains capped. Sims actually rate hit much higher prior to the hit cap, but I put in a semi-random number just to ensure I am capped when all is said and done. If you DON'T have a lot of haste, then you should try to keep expertise up a bit.
As you might have guessed, any time new content is released, I add to this spreadsheet to help me prioritize gear selections. In any case, for those of you who are interested, here's the BIS list I came up with. Arguments can be made for the gloves over the legs for non-set piece, but I think the legs' greater haste wins out. You'll also notice I find Halion's leather bracers to be the best, although the plate ones are quite nice, too, but the itemization is better with the leather piece.
Good luck to all in gearing up your Death Knights!
Monday, May 24, 2010
DPS Scaling in ICC: The Numbers Are In
And it's not pretty!
I've crunched the numbers, and my primary question - how have DPS DKs scaled in relation to other classes - has been resoundingly answered. In addition, loads of additional findings and questions have been raised by my trip into Dataland.
THE METHOD:
I took the top ten dps of each class/spec for each boss fight on normal ICC25. I obtained an average dps for each spec on each fight. You can easily examine each boss to see which fights are 'melee-friendly,' 'ranged friendly,' and which classes do well on specific fights. While certain strange events occur and can skew the data, like Dusk's crazy speed kill of Lady Deathwhisper, there is enough data here to smooth out any bumps. Regarding the above, two marksmen hunters for the LDW fight did very well - doing more than 5k better than any other hunters. This made hunters look better overall, but averaged across all 120 data points (10 hunters for each of the 12 fights), hunters still were found to be about the 5th best dps class overall.
In the end, I hand-entered 4,200 points of data, giving a very good sample size from which to draw conclusions about how each class/spec is scaling as guilds continue to progress and gear up in ICC.
Remember, I chose the top ten dps because I'm interested in what the maximum dps potential is - so even if it's not realistic for every class to get power infusion, or tricks/hysteria all the time, or to have the luxury of staying on the boss the whole time, we're looking at what CAN be done under the right circumstances.
Destruction warlocks, survival hunters, and blood DKs did so poorly on examination of normal modes, that I saved myself the effort and didn't calculate their scores in heroic modes.
THE RESULTS:
EDIT:
I just noticed my Sindragosa data for heroic got pasted over the Lich King info. I'll check this and repost if anything changes. As far as DKs go, though, this will only hurt. Their best fight in ICC relatively speaking was Sindragosa.
1. DKs are in a sorry state. Unfortunately, my hunch was borne out, conclusively. On examination of Normal modes, DKs started in the middle of the pack through Festergut's tank n spank, and faded fast to the end. By the end of the 12 fights, the BEST DK spec, unholy, was beaten out by at least one spec from EVERY class except poor, poor shammies. Unholy came in as the 11th-best dps spec in the game, and frost was 14th. The by-now-abandoned blood spec came in dead last - 19th - of the specs I looked at.
By the way, I did eyeball beast mastery, arms, and subtlety, but as expected they were so poor I didn't even put in the effort to add them to the chart. (well, arms did ok on some fights, but fury is so vastly superior that it wasn't worth it).
In any case, the expansion-long public perception that Death Knight are overpwered can be conclusively rejected at this point. THEY ARE THE SECOND-WORST (OR THIRD, MAYBE) DPS CLASS IN THE GAME right now.
Heroic modes wasn't much better. All of the 'Shadowmourne classes' (Warriors, Pallies, DKs) did see some improvement in heroic modes, but DKs once again scaled the poorest, by far. In fact, they still ended up the third-worst dps class in the game, barely passing priests, despite the fact that if you don't have a Shadowmourne, you can't even get on these charts. I didn't look at every fight, but on every one I did look at (Saurfang, Festergut, Sindragosa), EVERY Warrior, Paladin, and DK on the charts had the legendary. Do you scale an entire class around the assumption that they have the (very rare) weapon? Even so, DKs come out smelling putrescent.
2. The rich get richer. It's been well-known from vanilla and through two expansions that warriors scale well with gear. The proof is here. Blizzard has stated their goal for all dps classes to be as close as possible - within about 1-2% of each other, with the 'pure dps classes' on top.
The 'pures' didn't do too badly with the four classes filling the 2nd through 5th spots on the class charts, with the exception of warriors. Warriors finished 2% better than the second-best class (spanning the stated goal for all classes from their nearest competitor) and more than 17% better than the poor enhancement shammies. On heroic modes, they got even richer, finishing a full 6% better than second-best, and over 25% better than enhance shammies. As a hybrid class, that's hardly in line with Blizz' goals, and hardly fair to other classes. I'm not QQing here - just presenting the information. I like warriors, but clearly their dps is out of line with 'balance' in the game.
In heroic modes, Retribution used their Shadowmournes to leapfrog several 'pure' classes to finish in the third spot. Unholy did benefit from the legendary, but just not nearly as much as the other two classes.
And as has already been stated, the dps for shammies was much worse than any other class. Obviously, Blizz' announcement that there will be other heroism classes paves the way for shaman to get a big boost - and rightfully so.
3. Other observations: (some of this I'm sure many of you knew already; I'm no expert on every class):
-I was surprised fire mages did so much better than arcane, particularly in better gear. They were convincingly the second best spec in the game. Arcane did quite poorly in heroic modes, dropping six spots.
-Overall, the melee vs ranged divide was well-balanced. There was a fairly consistent split between ranged and melee overall, and there are several fights in ICC which favored one or the other. Decent balance.
-Rogues can't complain too much overall. I've seen lots of concerns with how they've scaled. Obviously, combat is doing fine, so one can't complain too much. Of course, if one is referring to mutilate, then yes, rogues have a point, but at least they have ONE spec that is doing well.
-Balance isn't scaling well. Balance druids did fairly well in normal modes, but hardly saw any increase in dps in heroic modes, and saw their relative position on the charts drop significantly.
-Shadow priests aren't as bad as their reputation. But, they could do better. They still ended up as the second or third worst class/spec, down there with DKs on the junk pile.
-Demonology warlocks aren't doing too badly. Yes, affliction is the 'best' spec in most cases, but Demo is actually viable, and proved itself to be better than destro. Destruction - once the 'only' spec for raiding locks, has fallen on hard times.
-Blizzard needs to allow pets to benefit from buffs. Fights like Blood Queen Lana'thel really hurt when your pet doesn't get any help from the buff you get.
DISCUSSION:
I'm not going to try to cover nearly everything here.
In fact, I'm only going to talk briefly about DK scaling, so for additional discussion, please leave a comment, or link this post in a forum somewhere :)
Why are DKs scaling so poorly?
1. Pets scale poorly. As a pet class, we may benefit from increased crit or other buffs, but the pets don't.
2. Knee-jerk nerfs. I've written about this previously. Early in beta and to some extent in Tier 7 content, DKs were certifiably overpowered. Since then, throughout the expansion there has been a perception that DKs are too strong, and that doing good dps is 'facerolling.' More recently, two abilities that needed adjusting - Tier 9 set bonus, and Scourge Strike - gave the impression again of being overpowered, but were nerfed to the point that the class has fallen behind. Frost DW was nerfed during Tier 8 content and still hasn't recovered even with some 3.3 buffs.
3. Other melee classes get more benefit from gear. Because DKs are a hybrid melee and spell based class, improvements in gear do less for them than the other melee classes. There are several ways to potentially fix this, from buffing talents that increase spell damage more from attack power, to adjusting the percentage of physical damage on abilities like Scourge Strike even more. Increasing the coefficient on obliterate etc is also an option.
4. In any case, Blizzard has made a commitment to continue balancing the classes. I hope they're monitoring the data that's readily available, and can give a little help to the poor classes (which right now are shaman, DK, spriest, and balance druids) and bring warriors back in line with other hybrids. I know they're focused on Cataclysm at this point, but there's lots of time to improve the raiding experience in this expansion still, and I hope they don't abandon us to our plight.
Enjoy the data, all you nerds out there! :)
I've crunched the numbers, and my primary question - how have DPS DKs scaled in relation to other classes - has been resoundingly answered. In addition, loads of additional findings and questions have been raised by my trip into Dataland.
THE METHOD:
I took the top ten dps of each class/spec for each boss fight on normal ICC25. I obtained an average dps for each spec on each fight. You can easily examine each boss to see which fights are 'melee-friendly,' 'ranged friendly,' and which classes do well on specific fights. While certain strange events occur and can skew the data, like Dusk's crazy speed kill of Lady Deathwhisper, there is enough data here to smooth out any bumps. Regarding the above, two marksmen hunters for the LDW fight did very well - doing more than 5k better than any other hunters. This made hunters look better overall, but averaged across all 120 data points (10 hunters for each of the 12 fights), hunters still were found to be about the 5th best dps class overall.
In the end, I hand-entered 4,200 points of data, giving a very good sample size from which to draw conclusions about how each class/spec is scaling as guilds continue to progress and gear up in ICC.
Remember, I chose the top ten dps because I'm interested in what the maximum dps potential is - so even if it's not realistic for every class to get power infusion, or tricks/hysteria all the time, or to have the luxury of staying on the boss the whole time, we're looking at what CAN be done under the right circumstances.
Destruction warlocks, survival hunters, and blood DKs did so poorly on examination of normal modes, that I saved myself the effort and didn't calculate their scores in heroic modes.
THE RESULTS:
I just noticed my Sindragosa data for heroic got pasted over the Lich King info. I'll check this and repost if anything changes. As far as DKs go, though, this will only hurt. Their best fight in ICC relatively speaking was Sindragosa.
1. DKs are in a sorry state. Unfortunately, my hunch was borne out, conclusively. On examination of Normal modes, DKs started in the middle of the pack through Festergut's tank n spank, and faded fast to the end. By the end of the 12 fights, the BEST DK spec, unholy, was beaten out by at least one spec from EVERY class except poor, poor shammies. Unholy came in as the 11th-best dps spec in the game, and frost was 14th. The by-now-abandoned blood spec came in dead last - 19th - of the specs I looked at.
By the way, I did eyeball beast mastery, arms, and subtlety, but as expected they were so poor I didn't even put in the effort to add them to the chart. (well, arms did ok on some fights, but fury is so vastly superior that it wasn't worth it).
In any case, the expansion-long public perception that Death Knight are overpwered can be conclusively rejected at this point. THEY ARE THE SECOND-WORST (OR THIRD, MAYBE) DPS CLASS IN THE GAME right now.
Heroic modes wasn't much better. All of the 'Shadowmourne classes' (Warriors, Pallies, DKs) did see some improvement in heroic modes, but DKs once again scaled the poorest, by far. In fact, they still ended up the third-worst dps class in the game, barely passing priests, despite the fact that if you don't have a Shadowmourne, you can't even get on these charts. I didn't look at every fight, but on every one I did look at (Saurfang, Festergut, Sindragosa), EVERY Warrior, Paladin, and DK on the charts had the legendary. Do you scale an entire class around the assumption that they have the (very rare) weapon? Even so, DKs come out smelling putrescent.
2. The rich get richer. It's been well-known from vanilla and through two expansions that warriors scale well with gear. The proof is here. Blizzard has stated their goal for all dps classes to be as close as possible - within about 1-2% of each other, with the 'pure dps classes' on top.
The 'pures' didn't do too badly with the four classes filling the 2nd through 5th spots on the class charts, with the exception of warriors. Warriors finished 2% better than the second-best class (spanning the stated goal for all classes from their nearest competitor) and more than 17% better than the poor enhancement shammies. On heroic modes, they got even richer, finishing a full 6% better than second-best, and over 25% better than enhance shammies. As a hybrid class, that's hardly in line with Blizz' goals, and hardly fair to other classes. I'm not QQing here - just presenting the information. I like warriors, but clearly their dps is out of line with 'balance' in the game.
In heroic modes, Retribution used their Shadowmournes to leapfrog several 'pure' classes to finish in the third spot. Unholy did benefit from the legendary, but just not nearly as much as the other two classes.
And as has already been stated, the dps for shammies was much worse than any other class. Obviously, Blizz' announcement that there will be other heroism classes paves the way for shaman to get a big boost - and rightfully so.
3. Other observations: (some of this I'm sure many of you knew already; I'm no expert on every class):
-I was surprised fire mages did so much better than arcane, particularly in better gear. They were convincingly the second best spec in the game. Arcane did quite poorly in heroic modes, dropping six spots.
-Overall, the melee vs ranged divide was well-balanced. There was a fairly consistent split between ranged and melee overall, and there are several fights in ICC which favored one or the other. Decent balance.
-Rogues can't complain too much overall. I've seen lots of concerns with how they've scaled. Obviously, combat is doing fine, so one can't complain too much. Of course, if one is referring to mutilate, then yes, rogues have a point, but at least they have ONE spec that is doing well.
-Balance isn't scaling well. Balance druids did fairly well in normal modes, but hardly saw any increase in dps in heroic modes, and saw their relative position on the charts drop significantly.
-Shadow priests aren't as bad as their reputation. But, they could do better. They still ended up as the second or third worst class/spec, down there with DKs on the junk pile.
-Demonology warlocks aren't doing too badly. Yes, affliction is the 'best' spec in most cases, but Demo is actually viable, and proved itself to be better than destro. Destruction - once the 'only' spec for raiding locks, has fallen on hard times.
-Blizzard needs to allow pets to benefit from buffs. Fights like Blood Queen Lana'thel really hurt when your pet doesn't get any help from the buff you get.
DISCUSSION:
I'm not going to try to cover nearly everything here.
In fact, I'm only going to talk briefly about DK scaling, so for additional discussion, please leave a comment, or link this post in a forum somewhere :)
Why are DKs scaling so poorly?
1. Pets scale poorly. As a pet class, we may benefit from increased crit or other buffs, but the pets don't.
2. Knee-jerk nerfs. I've written about this previously. Early in beta and to some extent in Tier 7 content, DKs were certifiably overpowered. Since then, throughout the expansion there has been a perception that DKs are too strong, and that doing good dps is 'facerolling.' More recently, two abilities that needed adjusting - Tier 9 set bonus, and Scourge Strike - gave the impression again of being overpowered, but were nerfed to the point that the class has fallen behind. Frost DW was nerfed during Tier 8 content and still hasn't recovered even with some 3.3 buffs.
3. Other melee classes get more benefit from gear. Because DKs are a hybrid melee and spell based class, improvements in gear do less for them than the other melee classes. There are several ways to potentially fix this, from buffing talents that increase spell damage more from attack power, to adjusting the percentage of physical damage on abilities like Scourge Strike even more. Increasing the coefficient on obliterate etc is also an option.
4. In any case, Blizzard has made a commitment to continue balancing the classes. I hope they're monitoring the data that's readily available, and can give a little help to the poor classes (which right now are shaman, DK, spriest, and balance druids) and bring warriors back in line with other hybrids. I know they're focused on Cataclysm at this point, but there's lots of time to improve the raiding experience in this expansion still, and I hope they don't abandon us to our plight.
Enjoy the data, all you nerds out there! :)
Monday, April 5, 2010
Heroic ICC: Week One
Thursday's raid (as you know) culminated in a rather joyous celebration of my guild's first 25-man kill. Suh-weeeet!!!
My ten-man run has also made some changes. I had discussed with the other 'leaders' of my Friday night ICC10 regarding our lack of ability to clear the whole instance and still have time remaining to kill Arthas. We'd also been plagued by inconsistent attendance, leading to weekly pugging and raid starts at 10pm. Thus, we made the decision to move to Sun/Monday nights, parallel to our other two guild 10-man groups. This also meant that three of our group members would be unable to attend, since they had mains/alts in those other groups. A difficult decision, but we went with it, and saw a lot of interest in the two day run. This Friday we decided on a last hurrah, and decided to extend the lockout, giving us a full night to work on Arthas. Once again we didn't start until 10pm due to difficulty in filling the group. We had several alts, plus a few newer guildies who'd never seen the fight before. We re-learned it together and killed Arthas for the first time on 10-man, 24 hours after our 25-man kill! Very nice. Now, both my 10- and 25-man raids will be in heroic ICC. OOOh, can't wait.
In any case, this week I'll be raiding as blood. I bit the bullet and installed armor pen gems in every slot that had previously held strength. About 2400g later, I'm ready to go. I might have to tweak things just a little more to hit the armor pen cap, but I should be ready for raids tomorrow. Blood spec clearly will lose out on overall damage meters, as the aoe from blood on trash can't compete with unholy or frost, but I do want to see how it does on boss fights. The biggest problem with blood is that I can't just switch to unholy for trash as my gem slots are all arpen - unless I get a complete armor set for strength and one for arpen - but that's not happening soon as I'm still working on tank gear.
So, hopefully by the end of the week we'll have installment #2 of dps DKs in 3.3.3! Let There Be Blood!
My ten-man run has also made some changes. I had discussed with the other 'leaders' of my Friday night ICC10 regarding our lack of ability to clear the whole instance and still have time remaining to kill Arthas. We'd also been plagued by inconsistent attendance, leading to weekly pugging and raid starts at 10pm. Thus, we made the decision to move to Sun/Monday nights, parallel to our other two guild 10-man groups. This also meant that three of our group members would be unable to attend, since they had mains/alts in those other groups. A difficult decision, but we went with it, and saw a lot of interest in the two day run. This Friday we decided on a last hurrah, and decided to extend the lockout, giving us a full night to work on Arthas. Once again we didn't start until 10pm due to difficulty in filling the group. We had several alts, plus a few newer guildies who'd never seen the fight before. We re-learned it together and killed Arthas for the first time on 10-man, 24 hours after our 25-man kill! Very nice. Now, both my 10- and 25-man raids will be in heroic ICC. OOOh, can't wait.
In any case, this week I'll be raiding as blood. I bit the bullet and installed armor pen gems in every slot that had previously held strength. About 2400g later, I'm ready to go. I might have to tweak things just a little more to hit the armor pen cap, but I should be ready for raids tomorrow. Blood spec clearly will lose out on overall damage meters, as the aoe from blood on trash can't compete with unholy or frost, but I do want to see how it does on boss fights. The biggest problem with blood is that I can't just switch to unholy for trash as my gem slots are all arpen - unless I get a complete armor set for strength and one for arpen - but that's not happening soon as I'm still working on tank gear.
So, hopefully by the end of the week we'll have installment #2 of dps DKs in 3.3.3! Let There Be Blood!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Getting enough gold for a raider's appetites (or, 1k a day keeps the poorhouse away)
Much has been written on the subject of making gold and of course whole blogs have been dedicated to the subject.
Once upon a time the Goblin and Wowenomics were two of my favorite gold-themed sites. The former has generally stopped writing about making gold and the latter has unofficially closed it's doors (last post Nov 09). Wowenomics has a lot of really good links still to point towards a large number of money-making sites.
Currently I visit Marcko's site quite frequently to see what fresh gold-making ideas are out there. Contrary to what you might expect, however, I actively discourage taking the advice of MMO-Champion or Wow.com on these topics, as they're so widely read that their advice tends to move markets to the point of unviability fairly quickly.
At any rate, if you are wanting to get into the Rockerfeller category, go to those other sites and do your own extensive research: my topic today is about making - for starters - enough to cover all the expenses of raiding semi to completely hard core.
Once upon a time the Goblin and Wowenomics were two of my favorite gold-themed sites. The former has generally stopped writing about making gold and the latter has unofficially closed it's doors (last post Nov 09). Wowenomics has a lot of really good links still to point towards a large number of money-making sites.
Currently I visit Marcko's site quite frequently to see what fresh gold-making ideas are out there. Contrary to what you might expect, however, I actively discourage taking the advice of MMO-Champion or Wow.com on these topics, as they're so widely read that their advice tends to move markets to the point of unviability fairly quickly.
At any rate, if you are wanting to get into the Rockerfeller category, go to those other sites and do your own extensive research: my topic today is about making - for starters - enough to cover all the expenses of raiding semi to completely hard core.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
How much gold do you need?
Unfortunately this topic was doomed before I capitalized my "U," I know.
One always 'needs' more gold!
However, I'd like to take a quick stab at two simple questions that have not-so-simple answers.
..... and now that I'm actually writing the articles, this is going to be a two-parter. The latter question/answer will have to wait for a second post - coming soon! Anyway:
1) As a raider, how much gold can you expect to need to be able to do your job the best you possibly can, and 2) What are some ways to efficiently earn that amount. The latter, of course, is the source material for whole blogs, so I'll cover some basics, but leave the details to others.
So, How Much Gold Do You Need?
One always 'needs' more gold!
However, I'd like to take a quick stab at two simple questions that have not-so-simple answers.
..... and now that I'm actually writing the articles, this is going to be a two-parter. The latter question/answer will have to wait for a second post - coming soon! Anyway:
1) As a raider, how much gold can you expect to need to be able to do your job the best you possibly can, and 2) What are some ways to efficiently earn that amount. The latter, of course, is the source material for whole blogs, so I'll cover some basics, but leave the details to others.
So, How Much Gold Do You Need?
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Blizzard's Money Laundering Scheme
I'm going to leave this post up because I need to be reminded that there are some things I still don't know about the game. :)
I've tortured myself for ages on this one, but Tiger and Tam pointed out that you can decide how many badges you want to trade instead of doing it one at a time, which I didn't know. Silly me!
I'd still say Blizzard could make it easier as I listed below by not requiring us to trade down at all.
Anyone who's had to trade 20 or thirty Triumph badges to Conqueror's emblems to Valor to Heroism can FEEL MY PAIN. Clicking every single time is carpal tunnel-inducing, boring, and just plain wrong.
Periodically, Blizzard introduces a change where we all go "I can't believe they did it any other way!" "how did we live with that before?"
I used to hate how mounts dismounted when crossing streams, when we had to use an addon to equip our tank/healer/dps gear, and so on. This list is very long, but it's hard to even think of examples, because the type of changes I'm thinking about are the ones that make so much sense we can't conceive of it being any other way.
When Blizzard decided to drop higher-level badges from heroics, they realized some players might still want the lower-level badge items. Good for them. The Hammerhead Sharkskin Cloak is still the best rogue/enchancement shaman cloak available for badges until Frost emblems. However, to get it now one has to trade down through several tiers of emblems to get the right ones.
While there are several possible solutions to this problem, I think the simplest, most elegant and parsimonious one is to simply allow you to purchase any badge item with any combination of badges from that level or higher. So, instead of trading down to get 25 badges of heroism, I could have 5 heroism left over, 3 valor, 2 conq, and 15 triumph in my bags. The heroism vendor takes a looks and says, "bingo bango bongo! Enjoy your cloak!" Why wouldn't he be happy to give you a cloak for better badges than he's been selling the item for six months now?
I would love to just turn in my extra 30 badges for 3 orange epic gems. Or for rep tokens, or again, for that item my new level 80 alt would love to have.
I really hope Blizzard gets the picture soon and lets us stop laundering our money. My mouse clicking fingers could use the break.
I've tortured myself for ages on this one, but Tiger and Tam pointed out that you can decide how many badges you want to trade instead of doing it one at a time, which I didn't know. Silly me!
I'd still say Blizzard could make it easier as I listed below by not requiring us to trade down at all.
Anyone who's had to trade 20 or thirty Triumph badges to Conqueror's emblems to Valor to Heroism can FEEL MY PAIN. Clicking every single time is carpal tunnel-inducing, boring, and just plain wrong.
Periodically, Blizzard introduces a change where we all go "I can't believe they did it any other way!" "how did we live with that before?"
I used to hate how mounts dismounted when crossing streams, when we had to use an addon to equip our tank/healer/dps gear, and so on. This list is very long, but it's hard to even think of examples, because the type of changes I'm thinking about are the ones that make so much sense we can't conceive of it being any other way.
When Blizzard decided to drop higher-level badges from heroics, they realized some players might still want the lower-level badge items. Good for them. The Hammerhead Sharkskin Cloak is still the best rogue/enchancement shaman cloak available for badges until Frost emblems. However, to get it now one has to trade down through several tiers of emblems to get the right ones.
While there are several possible solutions to this problem, I think the simplest, most elegant and parsimonious one is to simply allow you to purchase any badge item with any combination of badges from that level or higher. So, instead of trading down to get 25 badges of heroism, I could have 5 heroism left over, 3 valor, 2 conq, and 15 triumph in my bags. The heroism vendor takes a looks and says, "bingo bango bongo! Enjoy your cloak!" Why wouldn't he be happy to give you a cloak for better badges than he's been selling the item for six months now?
I would love to just turn in my extra 30 badges for 3 orange epic gems. Or for rep tokens, or again, for that item my new level 80 alt would love to have.
I really hope Blizzard gets the picture soon and lets us stop laundering our money. My mouse clicking fingers could use the break.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The best Trinket Evar!!!
EDIT EDIT EDIT:
I'm still getting hits from search engines regarding DK trinkets, so if that's what you're interested in, proceed to the bottom of the page for a quick list on DK trinkets.
This post was originally made after DBW (normal) dropped for me in ICC25.
_____________________________________________________
I'm tempted to call it the best item ever.... but the title surprises even me, because I lusted after the Dragonspine Trophy from silly old Gruul's Lair for soooo long (and never got the damn thing after scores of kills). I think I'd probably still have a more powerful response to a legendary weapon like Shadowmourne, but it's close.
Yes, I have to say Deathbringer's Will is a smash hit! (get it?)
It certainly fits the bill for best dps trinket of the Lich King expansion, providing a healthy dose of armor pen all the time - which scales extremely well in full ICC gear, but it also has the most enjoyable proc I've experienced yet in the game. The proc itself happens often, giving an amazing (in my DK's case) 600 haste, crit, or strength, and it lasts a full 30 seconds.
Best of all, it actually transforms you into a Northrend race for the duration of the proc!
Alliance version:
For haste, you get to be a Vry'kul (a little undersized imo).
For crit, you become an Iron Dwarf
For strength, you'll be looking at a fearsome Taunka!
It's a lovely, and enjoyable thing.
The only problem with the trinket that I hope Blizzard fixes soon is that whenever the proc occurs, you can't use mounts and some other actions become impossible. I can understand if Blizzard doesn't want me flying as a Vry'kul (sort of), but in instances it becomes a somewhat significant issue. For example, on Gunship, you can't use the rocket pack while the proc is active, so if you want to fly to the enemy's ship, or back again, you have to click off the proc (losing the buff and the cool animation) before you can fly.
In any case, I've still been having tremendous fun with it, and I look forward to my Beauty and the Beast proc for months to come!
_________________________________________
EDIT EDIT EDIT
Given that google searches tend to dump people here when looking for the best DK trinkets in Tier 10 content, here's my list (varies only slightly from what EJ says)
1. heroic Deathbringer's Will (I was fortunate to get this upgrade last week)
2. heroic Sharpened Twilight Scale
3. Deathbringer's Will
4. heroic Death's Verdict
5. Sharpened Twilight Scale
6. Herkumi War Token
7. heroic Whispering Fanged Skull
8. Death's Verdict
I arrived at this list by assigning values for each stat (attack power equivalence) based on several sims I use - similar to how Elitist Jerks does it. Then, you just calculate trinket uptime, arrive at a final AEP for each trinket, and voila!
Hope that helps for those of you looking for something like this and not just my gushing over a trinket I got months ago. :)
I'm still getting hits from search engines regarding DK trinkets, so if that's what you're interested in, proceed to the bottom of the page for a quick list on DK trinkets.
This post was originally made after DBW (normal) dropped for me in ICC25.
_____________________________________________________
I'm tempted to call it the best item ever.... but the title surprises even me, because I lusted after the Dragonspine Trophy from silly old Gruul's Lair for soooo long (and never got the damn thing after scores of kills). I think I'd probably still have a more powerful response to a legendary weapon like Shadowmourne, but it's close.
Yes, I have to say Deathbringer's Will is a smash hit! (get it?)
It certainly fits the bill for best dps trinket of the Lich King expansion, providing a healthy dose of armor pen all the time - which scales extremely well in full ICC gear, but it also has the most enjoyable proc I've experienced yet in the game. The proc itself happens often, giving an amazing (in my DK's case) 600 haste, crit, or strength, and it lasts a full 30 seconds.
Best of all, it actually transforms you into a Northrend race for the duration of the proc!
Alliance version:
For haste, you get to be a Vry'kul (a little undersized imo).
For crit, you become an Iron Dwarf
For strength, you'll be looking at a fearsome Taunka!
It's a lovely, and enjoyable thing.
The only problem with the trinket that I hope Blizzard fixes soon is that whenever the proc occurs, you can't use mounts and some other actions become impossible. I can understand if Blizzard doesn't want me flying as a Vry'kul (sort of), but in instances it becomes a somewhat significant issue. For example, on Gunship, you can't use the rocket pack while the proc is active, so if you want to fly to the enemy's ship, or back again, you have to click off the proc (losing the buff and the cool animation) before you can fly.
In any case, I've still been having tremendous fun with it, and I look forward to my Beauty and the Beast proc for months to come!
_________________________________________
EDIT EDIT EDIT
Given that google searches tend to dump people here when looking for the best DK trinkets in Tier 10 content, here's my list (varies only slightly from what EJ says)
1. heroic Deathbringer's Will (I was fortunate to get this upgrade last week)
2. heroic Sharpened Twilight Scale
3. Deathbringer's Will
4. heroic Death's Verdict
5. Sharpened Twilight Scale
6. Herkumi War Token
7. heroic Whispering Fanged Skull
8. Death's Verdict
I arrived at this list by assigning values for each stat (attack power equivalence) based on several sims I use - similar to how Elitist Jerks does it. Then, you just calculate trinket uptime, arrive at a final AEP for each trinket, and voila!
Hope that helps for those of you looking for something like this and not just my gushing over a trinket I got months ago. :)
Monday, January 11, 2010
UI customization
I've played wow for over 3 years.
I've used any number of addons that make my wow and raiding experiences easier, more fun, and just plain higher quality.
I've never messed with the basic stock UI (user interface).
Until now.
In the past, I saw UIs that looked nice or organized things well, but I found it too much of a hassle to implement. Other addons could be dropped into the addon folder, but most UIs had to be added by also messing with other, scary folders like the wtf and settings folders.... don't make me do it! In addition, for some reason I never found one that looked just perfect for me, just like poor Goldilocks.
SpartanUI is a wonderful package of updates for the interface that (as you can see behind the cut)
I've used any number of addons that make my wow and raiding experiences easier, more fun, and just plain higher quality.
I've never messed with the basic stock UI (user interface).
Until now.
In the past, I saw UIs that looked nice or organized things well, but I found it too much of a hassle to implement. Other addons could be dropped into the addon folder, but most UIs had to be added by also messing with other, scary folders like the wtf and settings folders.... don't make me do it! In addition, for some reason I never found one that looked just perfect for me, just like poor Goldilocks.
SpartanUI is a wonderful package of updates for the interface that (as you can see behind the cut)
Food update
I realized this weekend that my long-ago comments on consumeables were lacking.
Kibler's Bits are a cheap, easy way to buff your ghoul as an unholy DK. Your pet gets 20 strength and 20 stamina. On most servers you can find the buzzard meat for 20-50 silver, or if you're bored you can farm them up easily in Hellfire Peninsula without competition.
On the other hand, min/maxers should know that Spiced Mammoth Treats are in fact, better. It gives your ghoul an extra 10 strength and 10 stamina. They also cost more, with mammoth meat being a northrend meat and is used in some decent raid foods, particularly by non-fishermen/cooks - and a northrend reagent (Northern Spices). It may run you any where from 1-3.5g depending on your server.
So why would you spend so much more on each and every progression pull? BECAUSE YOU'RE A RAIDER!!!
:P
I've been using the mammoth treats for some time now.
Gold is easy to come by, so buying the meat and spices should be easy. If there isn't much meat on the auction house, just note someone who puts it up for sale a time or two and send them an in-game mail offering them a low price if they want to regularly supply you with say 3 stacks of meat a week. Have them COD it to you. I've done this on multiple servers and it works like a charm.
If you prefer to do so, however, farming the mats is very easy. Do the daily cooking quest for your spices, and then occasionally run to Dun Niffelem (far east corner of Storm Peaks, where Hodir Reputation dailies are) and kill packs of roaming mammoths for the meat. There are also many mammoth packs in Sholezar Basin and Borean Tundra, but it takes longer to get there.
Kibler's Bits are a cheap, easy way to buff your ghoul as an unholy DK. Your pet gets 20 strength and 20 stamina. On most servers you can find the buzzard meat for 20-50 silver, or if you're bored you can farm them up easily in Hellfire Peninsula without competition.
On the other hand, min/maxers should know that Spiced Mammoth Treats are in fact, better. It gives your ghoul an extra 10 strength and 10 stamina. They also cost more, with mammoth meat being a northrend meat and is used in some decent raid foods, particularly by non-fishermen/cooks - and a northrend reagent (Northern Spices). It may run you any where from 1-3.5g depending on your server.
So why would you spend so much more on each and every progression pull? BECAUSE YOU'RE A RAIDER!!!
:P
I've been using the mammoth treats for some time now.
Gold is easy to come by, so buying the meat and spices should be easy. If there isn't much meat on the auction house, just note someone who puts it up for sale a time or two and send them an in-game mail offering them a low price if they want to regularly supply you with say 3 stacks of meat a week. Have them COD it to you. I've done this on multiple servers and it works like a charm.
If you prefer to do so, however, farming the mats is very easy. Do the daily cooking quest for your spices, and then occasionally run to Dun Niffelem (far east corner of Storm Peaks, where Hodir Reputation dailies are) and kill packs of roaming mammoths for the meat. There are also many mammoth packs in Sholezar Basin and Borean Tundra, but it takes longer to get there.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Frostmourne and primordial saronite
Talk about the ultimate gold sink.
Any warrior, paladin, or DK aspiring to Frostmourne can start their primordial saronite collection now.
On most servers, the item is running from 2500-4500 gold.
First of all, when I found out the item was boe, I thought "if Blizzard wants to eliminate gold selling, don't they realize this decision alone will provide a HUGE boost to gold selling?"
Susan Express.com, the ubiquitous gold selling advertiser in trade, /yell, and /say, advertises their gold at about $7-15 per 1000g.
If you have no gold to start with, assuming you pay $10 per 1000g, and pay an average of 3500g per Saronite, that's about $875 to buy the materials for Shadow's Edge! And the sad thing is, many people are going to do this. (side note, the non-raid version, Quel'Delar, is running about $10-15k for the battered hilt - about $100-150 real dollars if you buy the gold).
I don't like the decision to make the item boe, but it is what it is. It certainly makes 'farming' gold easy, when someone can do the random daily heroic on 5 alts for 12 days and have about 15,000 gold from the emblems -> saronite alone. When people start really grasping this, it will drop the prices of saronite somewhat, but I doubt it will go much below 1-2k on most servers.
At any rate, the first part of the quest for the legendary becomes 'soloable' - in that you can get the primordial saronite without being in a raid. After that, you do have to get a competent raid group that can kill some raid bosses and so on, but that part shouldn't be too hard.
In any case, I do plan to buy the occasional primordial saronite. I'm no Gevlon - I'm not gold capped and I never will be - but I do find it easy to make gold in game and have had ~30,000g sitting on my main bank alt wating for 3.3, so I'll buy them as the prices drop a bit and see what happens when shadowfrost starts dropping.
It seems at least Shadow's Edge is somewhat accessible, even if I'm very unlikely to personally sniff Shadowmourne until after the next expansion.
Any warrior, paladin, or DK aspiring to Frostmourne can start their primordial saronite collection now.
On most servers, the item is running from 2500-4500 gold.
First of all, when I found out the item was boe, I thought "if Blizzard wants to eliminate gold selling, don't they realize this decision alone will provide a HUGE boost to gold selling?"
Susan Express.com, the ubiquitous gold selling advertiser in trade, /yell, and /say, advertises their gold at about $7-15 per 1000g.
If you have no gold to start with, assuming you pay $10 per 1000g, and pay an average of 3500g per Saronite, that's about $875 to buy the materials for Shadow's Edge! And the sad thing is, many people are going to do this. (side note, the non-raid version, Quel'Delar, is running about $10-15k for the battered hilt - about $100-150 real dollars if you buy the gold).
I don't like the decision to make the item boe, but it is what it is. It certainly makes 'farming' gold easy, when someone can do the random daily heroic on 5 alts for 12 days and have about 15,000 gold from the emblems -> saronite alone. When people start really grasping this, it will drop the prices of saronite somewhat, but I doubt it will go much below 1-2k on most servers.
At any rate, the first part of the quest for the legendary becomes 'soloable' - in that you can get the primordial saronite without being in a raid. After that, you do have to get a competent raid group that can kill some raid bosses and so on, but that part shouldn't be too hard.
In any case, I do plan to buy the occasional primordial saronite. I'm no Gevlon - I'm not gold capped and I never will be - but I do find it easy to make gold in game and have had ~30,000g sitting on my main bank alt wating for 3.3, so I'll buy them as the prices drop a bit and see what happens when shadowfrost starts dropping.
It seems at least Shadow's Edge is somewhat accessible, even if I'm very unlikely to personally sniff Shadowmourne until after the next expansion.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Back to the (raiding) DK stuffs
There's been a ton of DPS chain traffic here, and welcome to one and all. Happy you stopped by!
This is a DK blog after all, however, so I need to post about my DK, eh? :P
First things first:
GUSH NUMBER FIVE about Shadowmourne!
WOW.
Using the current EP values offered in the unholy thread by the EJ theorycrafters, I get an approximate value of 3659 for the Shadowmourne, not including the proc! The weapon's epic precursor, Shadow's Edge, comes in at an EP of 3075, making the legendary appropriately... legendary. Of course we'll have to vie with Warriors and Pallys, but all in all... drool.
On to dps. Things will definitely be changing for 3.3. Scourge Strike will be appropriately powerful again, while the T9 set bonuses which are frankly overpowered will be nerfed. I've enjoyed rolling diseases, but really, that's not the way the class is 'supposed' to be played. For now, however, GOD is the way to go.
Interestingly, in tonight's raid I decided to sidegrade roll on Ony's little Deathbringer, and thought what the heck, I'll give it a spin. I had the Lion's Maw (232) in my offhand. My dps increased noticably, but not hugely, even when keeping my 2H dps spec! I'll have to get another 245 and try a slightly tweaked GOD DW unholy spec and see what happens. Interesting, but not surprising. DW tends to outscale 2H at the high end of every tier. I'll let ya'll know if I switch to DW until 3.3.
I'll be out of town for the next week but will try to keep blogging - and more importantly - keeping the DPS chain stuff updated, while I'm gone.
This is a DK blog after all, however, so I need to post about my DK, eh? :P
First things first:
GUSH NUMBER FIVE about Shadowmourne!
WOW.
Using the current EP values offered in the unholy thread by the EJ theorycrafters, I get an approximate value of 3659 for the Shadowmourne, not including the proc! The weapon's epic precursor, Shadow's Edge, comes in at an EP of 3075, making the legendary appropriately... legendary. Of course we'll have to vie with Warriors and Pallys, but all in all... drool.
On to dps. Things will definitely be changing for 3.3. Scourge Strike will be appropriately powerful again, while the T9 set bonuses which are frankly overpowered will be nerfed. I've enjoyed rolling diseases, but really, that's not the way the class is 'supposed' to be played. For now, however, GOD is the way to go.
Interestingly, in tonight's raid I decided to sidegrade roll on Ony's little Deathbringer, and thought what the heck, I'll give it a spin. I had the Lion's Maw (232) in my offhand. My dps increased noticably, but not hugely, even when keeping my 2H dps spec! I'll have to get another 245 and try a slightly tweaked GOD DW unholy spec and see what happens. Interesting, but not surprising. DW tends to outscale 2H at the high end of every tier. I'll let ya'll know if I switch to DW until 3.3.
I'll be out of town for the next week but will try to keep blogging - and more importantly - keeping the DPS chain stuff updated, while I'm gone.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Ah, Shadowmourne!
I never played ‘vanilla’ Wow at level, so legendaries like Ashbringer and Thunderfury never meant all that much to me.
As a dedicated rogue in the Burning Crusade, I thought that the Warglaives were the ‘coolest things ever,’ but somehow never thought I would see them. As I worked myself up from Complete Noob to Noob Raider to Raider to Hardcore Raider, I began to appreciate the weapon for its stats, its art, and its color (ah yes, orange, mmm). As I mentioned before, lore was an inconsequential part of the game for me, so I paid little heed to the weapons’ origins. Nor, somehow, did I think that to aspire to such legendary weapons was a goal within my reach. I came quite a bit closer than anticipated, participating in numerous kills of Illidan on my rogue before and after Sunwell came out, but there were always rogues (and warriors, meh) ahead of me on priority. As such, I never really dreamed of getting them, and never got incredibly excited about them either. Unlike the guildie in my first Illidan kill who literally screamed for 5 minutes after being given the main hand weapon – and I’m pretty sure – crying real tears and peeing his pants as well.
As a dedicated rogue in the Burning Crusade, I thought that the Warglaives were the ‘coolest things ever,’ but somehow never thought I would see them. As I worked myself up from Complete Noob to Noob Raider to Raider to Hardcore Raider, I began to appreciate the weapon for its stats, its art, and its color (ah yes, orange, mmm). As I mentioned before, lore was an inconsequential part of the game for me, so I paid little heed to the weapons’ origins. Nor, somehow, did I think that to aspire to such legendary weapons was a goal within my reach. I came quite a bit closer than anticipated, participating in numerous kills of Illidan on my rogue before and after Sunwell came out, but there were always rogues (and warriors, meh) ahead of me on priority. As such, I never really dreamed of getting them, and never got incredibly excited about them either. Unlike the guildie in my first Illidan kill who literally screamed for 5 minutes after being given the main hand weapon – and I’m pretty sure – crying real tears and peeing his pants as well.
Friday, November 13, 2009
3.3 loot preview
The 5-man loot will be ilevel 219, heroic 5-man ilevel 232
10-man loot will be ilevel 251 and 264, respectively.
25-man loot will be 264 ilevel and 277, respectively.
25-man loot will be 264 ilevel and 277, respectively.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Unholy AOE
With more than 3-4 targets, the only class/spec in the game that is close to unholy is arcane mage.
This is because you have three diseases that are fully buffed by talents that are spread almost instantly to all mobs in the area with pestilence.
You can aoe with unholy with a rolling disease spec, or the 'traditional' 3.2.2 spec discussed in the Elitist Jerks forums; it shouldn't make a dramatic difference.
This is because you have three diseases that are fully buffed by talents that are spread almost instantly to all mobs in the area with pestilence.
You can aoe with unholy with a rolling disease spec, or the 'traditional' 3.2.2 spec discussed in the Elitist Jerks forums; it shouldn't make a dramatic difference.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Death Knight Basics: Consumables
One can certainly find a lot of basic information on DK raiding on many sites. DK info and the erstwhile Skeleton Jack (RIP) are examples.
You don't need to read this post. Go somewhere else. No, really.
Still here? Ok, well, if you insist, I'll post some infomation on DK basics for any readers not uber-informed on raiding with a Death Knight.
Consumables are a bit of a pain. They take up bag space. They cost lots of gold. They cost lots of gold. They don't make a huge difference, and they cost lots of gold.
Actually, let's get this straight. A FULL night of progression raiding (say, 4 hours or ~15-20 attempts) with maxed-out consumables can cost you in the ballpark of 400g. Most nights will be much less. Difference? At least a 5-10% overall buff. On progression, that difference will make or break you. And since this post is not about gold-making, I'll just say, Naga, please. You can make enough gold in a few hours of farming, or less if playing the AH for a whole week of raiding. It's worth it.
On with the show.
You don't need to read this post. Go somewhere else. No, really.
Still here? Ok, well, if you insist, I'll post some infomation on DK basics for any readers not uber-informed on raiding with a Death Knight.
Consumables are a bit of a pain. They take up bag space. They cost lots of gold. They cost lots of gold. They don't make a huge difference, and they cost lots of gold.
Actually, let's get this straight. A FULL night of progression raiding (say, 4 hours or ~15-20 attempts) with maxed-out consumables can cost you in the ballpark of 400g. Most nights will be much less. Difference? At least a 5-10% overall buff. On progression, that difference will make or break you. And since this post is not about gold-making, I'll just say, Naga, please. You can make enough gold in a few hours of farming, or less if playing the AH for a whole week of raiding. It's worth it.
On with the show.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Tier 10; Raiders Rejoice!
MMO-Champion first rushed the images to us and I likey what I see!
My link comes from [Epic] Wins, which is another nice site that delivers the news (and my work filter doesn't block it).
I don't know if I like the blue aura on the red shoulders, but in general I really like the design. The shoulders look more menacing and powerful than the T9 ones, and they also carry on the tradition of having skulls in prominent places.
That sword though, oh my!
It's the most delicious thing about the armor set. One wonders if we'll be able to get that one somewhere in Icecrown and how good it's dps/stats would be. I have a feeling that were I to get that one, even if I had a better weapon, that would be my Dalaran armor set. ^^
I'll be eager to see the stats on the gear and how they balance the armor pen vs haste etc issue.
Forgot to comment on the set bonuses:
T10 Death Knight Tank 2p Bonus: Increases the damage done by your Death and Decay ability by 20%.
T10 Death Knight Tank 4p Bonus: When you activate Blood Tap, you gain 12% damage reduction from all attacks for 10 sec.
T10 Death Knight DPS 2p Bonus: Your Obliterate, Scourge Strike, and Death Strike abilities deal 10% increased damage.
T10 Death Knight DPS 4p Bonus: Whenever all your runes are on cooldown, you gain 3% increased damage done with weapons, spells, and abilities for the next 15 sec.
DANG!!!
Those are nice. It's been pointed out those could be placeholder values, and they may, but I can drool, can't I?
My link comes from [Epic] Wins, which is another nice site that delivers the news (and my work filter doesn't block it).
![[Epic] Wins](http://www.epicwins.com/uploaded/news/Oct09/T10/death-knight-t10.jpg){kind=link}
I don't know if I like the blue aura on the red shoulders, but in general I really like the design. The shoulders look more menacing and powerful than the T9 ones, and they also carry on the tradition of having skulls in prominent places.
That sword though, oh my!
It's the most delicious thing about the armor set. One wonders if we'll be able to get that one somewhere in Icecrown and how good it's dps/stats would be. I have a feeling that were I to get that one, even if I had a better weapon, that would be my Dalaran armor set. ^^
I'll be eager to see the stats on the gear and how they balance the armor pen vs haste etc issue.
Forgot to comment on the set bonuses:
T10 Death Knight Tank 2p Bonus: Increases the damage done by your Death and Decay ability by 20%.
T10 Death Knight Tank 4p Bonus: When you activate Blood Tap, you gain 12% damage reduction from all attacks for 10 sec.
T10 Death Knight DPS 2p Bonus: Your Obliterate, Scourge Strike, and Death Strike abilities deal 10% increased damage.
T10 Death Knight DPS 4p Bonus: Whenever all your runes are on cooldown, you gain 3% increased damage done with weapons, spells, and abilities for the next 15 sec.
DANG!!!
Those are nice. It's been pointed out those could be placeholder values, and they may, but I can drool, can't I?
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Raiding gear: headset
I've heard of people that say they use the built in speakers and/or microphone while they raid.
I've also heard of huntards that raid without a pet, DK's that equip spellpower gear, and seen many a talent spec where the player evidently randomly assigned their points.
DON'T BE AN IDIOT.
I've also heard of huntards that raid without a pet, DK's that equip spellpower gear, and seen many a talent spec where the player evidently randomly assigned their points.
DON'T BE AN IDIOT.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)