Ramping for MoP

Ok, so as we are all in the process of ramping up for MoP, I wanted to get some feedback from all my followers out there about their plans for the new x-pac. As many of us have seen, some of the new changes for our characters are not the best or what we thought they would be. Now I know people have said that the changes are geared for lvl 90 characters, but what happens when we hit lvl 90 and they are still not what we thought?

So, lets hear about the changes you guys like and what you don’t like….

I’m Back!!!!

To all those who have been wondering…

It has been a long couple months, but now with my little girl here and also finding a local driving job so I can stay home every night, I am coming back to WoW and raiding. So I ask that you give me some time and I will start up full time again on my blogs for all you shamans out there!

I would like to thank my guild, UNDYING RESOLUTION, for all your support with me being gone for a time here. I would also like to thank my followers for still being there waiting for me to come back. I will get a new blog posted as soon as i can!

I’m Back!!!!

To all those who have been wondering…

It has been a long couple months, but now with my little girl here and also finding a local driving job so I can stay home every night, I am coming back to WoW and raiding. So I ask that you give me some time and I will start up full time again on my blogs for all you shamans out there!

I would like to thank my guild, UNDYING RESOLUTION, for all your support with me being gone for a time here. I would also like to thank my followers for still being there waiting for me to come back. I will get a new blog posted as soon as i can!

The fun of Moving

This past week has been extremely crazy..My wife and I got everything FINALLY moved into our new place and are just about done unpacking. Now we have to get organized and get everything ready for the baby, which will be here very soon. At least I have checked better internet now ( AT&T fiber optic internet instead of DSL) so I should have a lot less lag for raiding and playing D3..Keep you posted on everything guys….

Is race change worth it in MoP?

Has anyone else really considered changing races of their shaman when MoP comes out? I have been tinkering with the panda shaman on Beta, and im not really sure whether it is something that is worth the money to do or not. While the racial abilities look better, losing the 1% hit rating from the Draenei race may not be worth it.

I wanna start a poll here to see what your thoughts are folks. So lemme know if you plan on chaning races or not and why you think it would/would not be a good idea.

Baby coming soon…

Hey guys, well its crunch time for me and my wife. She is now at 37 weeks, so not much longer till the baby is here. So for the time, there will not be too many new posts until after the baby is born, but I will try to give you guys some more bits to keep things going.

Elemental Glyph Changes- Good or Bad?

Sorry for the Delay in posts folks, but lets move on to some of the new changes on the Shaman glyphs. As some of you have seen on MMO already, there are some signifigant changes to a few of our major glyphs that we elemental shamans use. Lets look into them….

The biggest benefit for Elementals is the removal of Glyph of Lightning Shield. This was one of our highly reccomended glyphs as it allowed us not to drop below 3 charges of our shield. So now we have to worry about if our shield will drop after we use and it opens up a glyph spot for something else important. The good thing about it now is that the shield only has 1 charge on it, but you never lose it and 1 charge does the same amount of damage now as 3 do in Cata.

A slight concern that may be possible while we are leveling and early raiding is Glyph of Thunderstorm. This one now only removes knockback and no longer gives us mana back. So watch your mana carefully until we get some better gear at 90.

Another good change is Glyph of Totemic Recall. This now gives us full mana back on all totem we recall instead of the current 50%.

One big one that has also changed that I have not seen on MMO yet (maybe i just missed it) is Glyph of Flame Shock. This one is a big nerf for us and I am still in the process in determining if it will still be viable to use. The glyph now only increases duration by 25% ( down from 50%) and now also reduces initial damage by 25%. Just by description it seems like it may not be useful, but let me do some more work with in on Beta before we abandon it.

So far I am liking the changes to Elemental, but as you all know, its still going to take time to see if we have come out of the support first role that we have been accustomed to or will we be a viable DPS source with support abilities now.

Elemental Changes Part 2: Totems and Talents- Fearfulr or just necessary? ( cont)

As everyone has probably seen already, Blizz has decided to change the talent trees, again. Now you will get to choose 1 of 3 talents every 15 levels, for a total of onl 5 talents active at a time. The good part about this is that if you need to change a talent for situational needs, you dont have to go respec any more, you just need a reagent in your bags to make the change. So lets look at the redesigned talent tree…

LEVEL 15

This is where you get to choose your first talent point. ( don’t woory, a lot of the old talents you use to have will be implemented into your spellbook when you hit certain levels) As with each Talent tier that opens up, you get to 1 of 3 talents available…

Nature’s Guardian– This talent is exactly like the current one in the Resto tree, but you no longer have to be Resto to use it. ( yes you could have reached it in Elemental, but why would you at the time?) Just like the present talent, this one should really only be used in PVP.

These next 2 are personal preference of which you prefer to use.

Stone Bulwark Totem– As I mentioned in part 2, this totem you have to spec into to use. This places a shield on the caster absorbing 21k damage immediately and absorbing 7k every 5 sec for 30 sec. (1 min CD)

Astral Shift– Caster is partially shifted into the elemental planes, reducing damage by 40% for 6 sec. ( 2 min CD)

Again these are personal preference, but also situational. e.g. Heroic Ultraxion when you need 5 people to stay out for HoT, Astral shift would be the better option due to more damage mitigation., but standard fights i would reccomend Stone Bulwark.

LEVEL 30

Frozen Power– identical to the current Enhancement Talent, so really only good for PVP or leveling.

Earthgrab Totem– Identical to our Earth’s Grasp talent combined with earthbind, but now its own separate totem with 1 exception, It now pulses to keep impairing movement on enemies instead of just once. Again, seems like a PVP talent, but i guess some situational raid needs if raid lead see fit.

Windwalk Totem– Another totem that needs a talent point to use. Makes party/raid immune to movement impairing effects for 6 sec.

LEVEL 45

Call of the Elements– This new talent, resets the CD on all totem with a CD of 5 min or less. Basically they gave us a rogues preparation talent. Which is pretty good actually.

Totemic Restoration– When a totm is replaced or destroyed before it expires, the CD on it will be reduced by in proportion of it lot duration, up to 50%. Now i have played with this talent in Beta, and to me it seems like a useless talent. Because the only totems it can affect the CD duration enough to worry about is our elemental totems.

Totemic Projection– Move your current totem to anywhere you want within range. Decent talent for those who are tired of recalling totems and dropping them again elsewhere.

LEVEL 60

This is where the really good talents start coming into play….

Elemental Mastery– identical to the current talent but CD can no longer be affected by Lightining bolt or Chain lightining.

Ancestral Swiftness– Again, identical to the Resto talent, but now has a passive 5% spell and haste buff on it.

Echo of the Elements– Identical to Elementals’s Mastery, chance to duplicate your previous spell. This ability stack with mastery So I feel this is the Talent worth getting for Elementals.

LEVEL 75

Healing Tide Totem– Another totem you have to talent to get ( UG!)  Totem has 15 sec duration and heals party/raid for 3243 every 2 sec. More of a healing support talent.

Ancestral Guidance– When you deal direct damage or healing, this talent will copy 40% of wht was done and heal a nearby party/raid member.

Conductivity– When Healing Rain is down and you cast a direct heal or a Lightining Bolt on a target withing H.R, allies also within the H.R will share healing done equal to 20% of the damage or healing done. Basically, if you cast H.R and your elemental, you better be casting it on the melee that is right on the boss or it will be useless. If you’re Resto make sure you heal someone in H.R. to get the extra bonus.

LEVEL 90

Since they have currently not been opened up in Beta yet (can only get to lvl 87 atm), I havent had the chance to play with them yet. So I cannot give advice on what to pick from experience

Unleashed Fury– This talent has different uses depending on which weapon enhancement you have on, so since this is currently for Elemental, I will describe the Flametongue one for now- Increases target dmaage taken by Lightining Bolt or Lave Burst by 25% for 10 sec. Blizz has made us a talent that gives us a reason to use Unleash Elements ( YAY!!!)

Primal Elementalist– Our Fire/Earth Elementals summons primal elementals from the elemental planes. They are strogger than our Elementals and can be controlled from a Pet bar.

Elemental Blast– Spell ( 2sec csat time, 12 sec CD) harnessing Elemental power, dealing 3700-4339 Elemental power and increasing caster’s Crit, Haste or Mastery by 5% for 8 sec.

Now with looking at all 3 talents, I think it is going to be up to each individual preference and testing and find out which is better for you.

Well, thats all for now guys..Enhancement coming later this week. Enjoy folks!

Elemental Changes Part 2: Totems and talents- Fearful or just necessary?

Ok folks, Part 2 is a combination of the way our totems now work and our talent tree. Lets continue the MoP changes, startin with totems!

As you may or may not have seen, Blizz has redesigned our totems. They are no longer an all the time neccesity, but are now a situational usage item. For me, I love the idea of not have to worry about if my totems are close enough, or if they are about to expire. With the exception of the Fire, the totems are now going to be dropped ‘as needed’.  Which for us means less time having to replace totems, and more time slamming as much damage on the boss as we can. So lets take a look at the redesign of the old ones and look at some of the news ones being brought in…

AIR TOTEMS-

Grounding- This one they have decided to pretty much leave alone, so currently this has no changes made to it.

Capacitator- This one seems to be a decent new totem. It will gather electrical energy for 5 seconds and it will then explode, stunning all enemies within 8 yds for 5 sec. (45 sec CD)

Stormlash-  This new one empowers all allies within 30 yds with electrical energy, Adding additional Nature damage to target for 10 sec. ( 5 min CD)

Windwalk- This ones goes right along with Tremor Totem now , making party/raid members immune to movement impairing efects for 6 sec. ( 1 min CD)

FIRE TOTEMS

The fire totems really have not been changed. Searing and Magma both still do exactly what they currently do with CD timers being the same. The Fire Elemental is identical, but with a much shorter 5 min CD ( down from 10), with a new glyph that reduces the CD by 40%. ( bringing CD to just 3 min) and also a shorter duration of 1 min ( down from 2 min)

WATER TOTEMS

For elemental, we only have 1 water totem available for use: Healing Stream. The redisgn of this totem still obviously heals party/raid, ( 3243 every 2 sec) but now only lasts for 15 sec. ( 30 sec CD).

EARTH TOTEMS

Earthbind, Tremor, and Earth Elemental are all identical, with just the Earth Elemental CD changed to 5 min ( down from 10).

Stone Bulwark- This totem must be specced into from the talent tree if you want ot use it. This will shield the caster  upon dropping absorbing 21k damage, and will continue to absorb 7k damage every 5 sec thereafter for 30 sec. ( 1 min CD)…. So, thats the rundown on the totem changes so far. Lets look at the new Talent points we have..

Elemantal Changes Part 1

Being on Beta and seeing what exactly has changed is massive! there are soo many things that need to be discussed, so lets get right to it with Elemental Shamans….

First, and probably the biggest change, is the use of totems. This applies to ALL shamans now. We no longer have to drop totems for buffs and support. (We are no longer to be considered a support class…YAY!!) Instead, totems will be use as situational uses. This means we can focus more on doing damage (or healing if you’re Resto) and not worry too much about if our totems are running out.

2nd is the range hit cap. This has been reduced to 15% for all spellcasters (which is 1440 hit rating @level 85 currently) This will help reduce the amount of spirit/hit we have to reforge. (which means more mastery)

3rd, speaking of mastery, Elemental Oath ( 5% crit aura) has been replaced with a new aura called Grace of Air. This new aura lets us give party/raid  5 mastery. (which with current ilvl of  397, im at 50% mastery).  And since no one will have a Panda at 90 anytime early, this makes us somewhat needed for raids again!

Next item would have to be the loss of a relic item in our items. To me, this is a good thing because it means one less item we have to fight for in our gear!

Now, lets dicuss some of our spellbook abilities…Most noteable definitely has to be Lava Surge.  This new talent brings back an awesome ability. In our Tier 12 (Firelands) gear, our 4-piece bonus was that our Flame Shock DoT gave our Lava Burst the ablity to become an instant cast. Well It is now a permanent talent now.

     Elemental Reach ( increases distance of damaging spells), now includes totems as well.  They get an extra 15 yards added on. ( 30 yrds up to 45)

   NERF ALERT!!!! NERF ALERET!!!!l

    The next ability combines another 2 current abilities. The new Elemental Fury will now incorporate the old E.F. and Shamanism into one talent. The original E.F increased Crit damage by 100% and Shamanism gave us 36% bonus damage. The new E.F. will only increase crit damage by 50%, Lightining Bolt Damage increased 50%, and Chain Lightining damage increased 75%. so its really a semi-nerf, semi-buffed.

Thats pretty much the only changes to abilities for the time.. Tomorrow..Part 2, Totems and the new Talent tree.